Origami imperfection 1

Geometry Level 3

This is a nice origami dodecahedron made from 30 edge modules. The individual modules are simple to make:

  1. Quarter a square so the end view looks like a W.

  2. Fold two triangular corners to form creases as shown in the first picture.

  3. Fold a diagonal defined by the ends of the creases from the previous step as in the second picture.

  4. Make 30 modules and assemble as in the final picture.

Mathematically, this module does not yield the correct angle for a pentagon. In reality, the error is small enough that it is unnoticeable. Find this error in degrees.


The answer is 0.4349488229.

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1 solution

David Vreken
Nov 18, 2018

Let the original square be divided up into 16 equal squares. Then the quarter-square of Step 1 will consist of 4 of the 16 little squares, and the two triangular corners of Step 3 will take up 2 of those little squares, and the diagonal of Step 3 will take up the remaining 2 little squares, as pictured below.

Then A O B = tan 1 1 1 \angle AOB = \tan^{-1} \frac{1}{1} and B O C = tan 1 2 1 \angle BOC = \tan^{-1} \frac{2}{1} , which makes A O C = tan 1 1 1 + tan 1 2 1 108.43494882 ° \angle AOC = \tan^{-1} \frac{1}{1} + \tan^{-1} \frac{2}{1} \approx 108.43494882°

This is close to the interior angle of a regular pentagon, which is actually ( 5 2 ) 180 ° 5 = 108 ° \frac{(5 - 2)180°}{5} = 108° .

This makes the difference 108.43494882 ° 108 ° = 0.43494882 ° 108.43494882° - 108° = \boxed{0.43494882}° .

Thanks for the nice solution. Look forward to a different construction part 2 probably tomorrow.

Jeremy Galvagni - 2 years, 6 months ago

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I'm looking forward to it!

David Vreken - 2 years, 6 months ago

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