Susan Goldstine's Origami Picture Page

These are pictures of an origami display that I installed in the Amherst College Mathematics and Computer Science Department in 1995.

If you have a slow web connection, click here for a version of this page that links to smaller files.
The explanations linked below are written for a non-mathematical audience and contain further photos and diagrams. These links also contain results of interest to students and practitioners of mathematics. I encourage all visitors to browse further.
(Click on the first picture below to see a larger version.)

Click here to see an explanation of the types of solids modeled here.

Click here to see which solids are represented by the hanging models.

Click here to see an explanation of duals of regular solids.

Click here to see an explanation of symmetry groups of regular solids.

Click here to see some other origami and non-origami models I've made

To see some symmetry groups in two dimensions, check out the University of Minnesota Geometry Center program Kali, which lets you draw patterns with various symmetries.

To see a program still in development that allows you to look at four-dimensional polytopes, check out Gordon Kindlmann's Peek.

To see pictures of real-life symmetries (both two- and three-dimensional), look at Dror Bar-Natan's Image Gallery. His section on tilings has more cool symmetry links.

For information about the mathematics of origami and an excellent collection of online and offline references, go to Thomas Hull's Origami Mathematics Page. Unlike this page, which uses origami models to illustrate geometric principles, Hull's origami math page deals primarily with the mathematical underpinnings of origami itself.