Did you know?
Akira Yoshizawa of Japan is called the grandmaster of origami. He helped create the arrows and symbols used in folding diagrams today, and guessed he had made over 50,000 models!
Try folding paper in half again and again. It gets hard very fast! In 2002, a high-school student named Britney Gallivan folded a 1.2-kilometre-long roll of toilet paper in half 12 times.
In Japan, there is a tradition of folding 1,000 paper cranes, called senbazuru. People make them to wish someone good health, or as a wish for peace.
Try this: Fold a Paper Cup
Take a square sheet of paper. 1. Fold it corner to corner to make a triangle, with the long fold at the bottom. 2. Fold the right corner across to touch the left edge. 3. Fold the left corner across to touch the right edge. 4. Fold one top flap down towards you. Turn it over and fold the other flap down. Open the top. Your cup is ready!
Go further: Origami in Space
Engineers borrow ideas from origami to fit big things into small rockets. The Miura fold, named after Japanese scientist Kōryō Miura, lets a sheet fold and unfold in one smooth movement. It has been used to pack large solar panels for satellites. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched on 25 December 2021, had its huge sunshield and its mirror of 18 six-sided pieces folded up, then opened out in space!