ABSTRACT

Our work questions whether paper bags can be truly (mathematically) folded and unfolded in the way that happens many times daily in reality. More precisely, we consider foldings that use a finite number of creases, between which the paper must stay rigid and flat, as if the paper were made of plastic or metal plates connected by hinges. Such foldings are sometimes called rigid origami, being more restrictive than general origami foldings, which allow continuous bending and curving of the paper and thus effectively uncountably infinite “creasing.” It is known that essentially everything can be folded by a continuous origami folding [7], but that this is not the case for rigid origami.