Fold and Cut Theorem

By Anupum Pant

Cutting a square off the center of a paper is easy. Jab a scissor into the paper and start cutting. But there’s an easier way. Fold it in half and you can do it in two turns, no jabbing required. Fold it two times and you need just two turns. Fold it thrice and you don’t need any turns at all. You then can just cut a straight line and you’ve got a square when you open it up. If you fold at the diagonal first, you won’t even have to do three folds to reach just one cut to get a square.

The most amazing thing about this is that there’s a theorem in mathematics about this which says, as long as a shape is made up of straight lines, there is always a way to fold it properly such that you get that shape with a single straight cut.

As long as you avoid curvy letters, you can do this for every letter in the English alphabet. Here’s an example…

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