Fabien Aoustin
140 articles published in Tangente
History and CultureN°207Aug 20, 2022The Demaines: a passion for folding, from father to son
Born in 1942, Martin Demaine initially studied glassblowing in Britain.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 20, 2022The study of crease patterns
Studying the geometric figures obtained by fully unfolding an origami creation has led to general theorems that can be stated simply. These results quickly lead to questions connected to major open problems in mathematics.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 20, 2022David Huffman, master of curves
Some artists' origami sculptures are often impressive, whether for their striking representational qualities, their painstaking detail, or their particularly pleasing geometry.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 20, 2022A wealth of constructions
Some constructions impossible to achieve with straightedge and compass become possible using origami… but not all of them! Paper folding also lets us revisit several questions of concurrency or collinearity, and reflect on the construction of polygons.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 20, 2022The many uses of paper
Paper is a material of choice for many artists. The art of folding takes several forms.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 20, 2022The theory of paper folding
Historically, the art of paper folding is thought to have emerged in China as early as the 2nd century BCE. Wherever it developed, the practice seems to have been closely linked to the advent of paper.
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Math for everyoneN°207Aug 19, 2022The Haga fold
Straightedge-and-compass geometry boasts a long history. But Euclid and his followers do not have a monopoly on points, lines and figures! The study of origami geometry is more recent, and it is surprisingly effective. Kazuo Haga has shown just how much richness a simple fold can hold.
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History and CultureN°207Aug 19, 2022The d'Alembert Prize for Marie Lhuissier
Marie Lhuissier is the 2022 winner of the Société mathématique de France's d'Alembert Prize.
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History and CultureN°206Jun 21, 2022A delightful conjecture by Paul Erdős…
The convergence of certain series is a classic topic in analysis (see Suites et Séries, Bibliothèque Tangente 41, 2011). For example, it is fairly easy to prove that the harmonic series—the sum of the reciprocals of the positive integers—diverges.
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History and CultureN°82May 18, 2022Some bold early attempts
Évariste Galois is known for his tragic fate, his trailblazing mathematical genius and his profound research in algebra. But before all that, he too was a high-school and university student. Some of Galois’s schoolwork has survived.
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History and CultureN°82May 18, 2022The entrance examination for the École préparatoire…
As a young student, Galois is known to have failed the École polytechnique entrance examination twice. Yet this was not the only entrance examination he sat: he was even admitted to the École préparatoire. Let's see how he tackled the first problem on the mathematics paper.
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Math for everyoneN°205Apr 20, 2022Models for biology
Historically, differential equations emerged in response to geometrical questions and problems in physics, particularly the study of planetary motion, pendulums and, later, heat diffusion. Yet they have plenty of applications in biology too!
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