Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April Fools'!

Happy April 1st everyone!









In France, when someone plays a prank on you, they triumphantly declare "poisson d'avril!", which means "April Fish". I am sure there is a reason for this, but as a kid, we always just went with it. If you grew up a Frenchie, you'll remember spending the whole day cutting out little paper fish to stick on your friends' backs when they weren't looking. Once again, I never questioned these traditions as a child. Just enjoy this meta-fish and don't judge.

For all of you non-Frenchies, here are some other things.


So I don't have students to torment this year (how I miss those days). I thought I'd regale all of you with some paper tricks instead. These neat little models are not what they appear. I have made GIFs to prove it.

 Here's an old favorite: the amazing modular transforming ninja star. If you would like to make this model, check out my tutorial.



And what's this? A box? Nop.


Check out Jo Nakashima's tutorial for Valerie Vann's Magic Rose Cube.


Are you amazed yet?

How about thise? Here's a cool folding exercise: the Magical Transforming Octahedron by Jeremy Shafer.






Ok, so I ain't fooling you. You're too smart. But the mechanics behind these models are very interesting, and not because I'm writing this at 5am.


Fine, I'm sorry. You wanted neat pranks to play on your friends, didn't you? And I blew it. Truth is, paper is meant to make people happy. Unless you don't know how to hold it and get paper cuts. I guess this whole post was some kind of bad April Fools' joke. But before you go, take a look at this neat trick inspired by origami (this one's legit).





Leave me a comment if you can figure out how he does it. And good luck finding ways to make other people miserable!


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