How to fold and cut a Christmas star<br /> Christian Lawson-Perfect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S90WPkgxvas

What a great simple example with some interesting complexity.

For teachers trying this with students, when one is done making some five pointed stars, the next questions a curious mathematician might ask are: how might I generalize this new knowledge to make a 6 pointed star? A 7 pointed star? a 1,729 pointed star? Is there a maximum number of points possible? Is there a minimum? Can any star be made without a cut? What happens if we make more than one cut? Are there certain numbers for which a star can't be made? Is there a relationship between the number of folds made and the number of points? What does all this have to do with our basic definition of what a paper star might look like? What other questions might we ask to extend this little idea of cutting paper stars?

Recalling some results from my third grade origami days, based on the thickness of most standard office paper, a typical sheet of paper can only be folded in half at most 7 times. This number can go up a bit if the thickness of the paper is reduced, but having a maximum number of potential folds suggests there is an upper bound for how many points a star might have using this method of construction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVMFrH-_H_s

https://wiki.earthmoonstars.space/

Discussed at Friends of the Lin 2023-05-10

Inspired by the Mondragon Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

and Lionsberg https://lionsberg.wiki/

This idea is closely related to "talking rocks" and seems a very apt parallel.

something poetic about these examples even if they're poor science...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjf0hCKOCE

The sky is a textbook. The sky is a lawbook. The sky is a science book. —Duane Hamacher, (1:24)

Hamacher uses the Western description "method of loci" rather than an Indigenous word or translated word.

The words "myth", "legend", "magic", "ritual", and "religion" in both colloquial English and even anthropology are highly loaded terms.

Words like "narrative" and "story" are better used instead for describing portions of the Indigenous cultures which we have long ignored and written off for their seeming simplicity.

Interesting juxtaposition of the height of academia and pop stardom of his day.

John Dewey (/ˈduːi/; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. #

Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901[1] – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host. He was one of the first modern pop stars of the teen idol type. #

For a deeper explanation outside of the TED Talk format, it would be enlightening to unpack a bit of the science behind how astronomers come to these conclusions.

Super cool!

This just blew my mind. Reminds me of this scene in The Fault in Our Stars when Hazel is wearing a shirt with a pipe on it and tries to argue with someone that its not actually a pipe... it's only a drawing of a pipe..