ReferenceFinder: Find coordinates on a piece of paper with only folds

(mutsuntsai.github.io)

63 points | by icwtyjj 3 days ago

9 comments

  • srean 5 hours ago
    Folding is more powerful than ruler and compass constructions. One can do cube roots, angle trisections and more.

    Coincidentally enough, I had mentioned straight edge and ruler constructions in a different thread a few minutes ago

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47112418

    Related older thread

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45222882

    • Ecco 8 hours ago
      That is really cool. I wish it had an animated video to display the result, that'd be even easier to follow and therefore even more impressive.
      • Alifatisk 6 hours ago
        Maybe possible with that DSL the YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown created?
      • analog8374 1 hour ago
        Folding could be called a superset of measuring.

        Measuring could be called a special case of folding (it's an accordian fold)

        • amelius 8 hours ago
          Is this brute forcing, or is there more to it?
          • PowerElectronix 7 hours ago
            There's more to it. Origami as a calculation tool is more powerful than compass and straight edge.
            • CrazyStat 1 hour ago
              Is there? I followed the link[1] to the original author of the desktop software this web app is derived from, and he says:

              > To make a long story short, by the third generation of ReferenceFinder (written in 2003), I had incorporated all 7 of the Huzita-Justin Axioms of folding into the program, allowing it to potentially explore all possible folding sequences consisting of sequential alignments that each form a single crease in a square of paper. Of course, the family tree of such sequences grows explosively (or to be precise, exponentially); but the concomitant growth in the availability of computing horsepower has made it possible to explore a reasonable subset of that exponential family tree, and in effect, by pure brute force, find a close approximation to any arbitrary point or line within a unit square using a very small number of folds.

              (emphasis added)

              [1] https://langorigami.com/article/referencefinder/

          • JKCalhoun 7 hours ago
            I enjoy when HN surfaces out-of-the-box type stuff like this. Very cool.
            • scoot 3 hours ago
              “outside of the box”?