21 March 2008

My Foldable Great Circles Presentation

I gave a presentation on "Explorations to Define a Theory of Foldable Great Circle Origami" to the AMS Special Session on Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics and Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University (NYU).

Some important elements of this mathematics research are
  1. The subject is at least partially accessible to young people (I have built these models with young children and undergraduates should be able to understand the work "completely")
  2. The models can be built with paper, fasteners (bobby pins), and a protractor. So the material is concrete and tangible.
  3. The statement of the problem is easy enough that one would think, at first, that the problem is "easy"
  4. The problem is still unsolved
  5. My research supports the view that there are still easy to state, easy to explore, exciting unsolved mathematics problems

I am looking for collaborators to finish the research. I would be willing to give a simplified version of my presentation to educational and/or research audiences.