The word origami is of Japanese origin and comes from oru meaning, to fold, and kami which means paper. Though there is little known about the origin of this art, there is plenty of material available on its uses in education, including math, science, and the arts, still in use today. The simplified definition of origami could be stated as: a visual form or sculptural illustration created by the folding of its medium, mostly paper.

PC Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and PBS have featured this site at Origami & Math as an educational resource on the mathematics of origami. At the end of the article are several links to further explore Humiaki Huzita, a great mathematician, and his development of axioms: a series of rules based on the mathematics of paper folding. Though Jacques Justin originally discovered the seven axioms in 1989, it was the Japanese-Italian, Huzita, who formulated the geometric aspect of origami, and announced them, in 1991, at the first origami conference ever held.

Tom Hull, an associate professor at Western New England College, began his study of the mathematics of origami shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in Mathematics. His page contains links to paper folding video demonstrations on Youtube. In addition, his origami math page, found here, Origami Math provides links to a bibliography of origami terms, science fair projects, and various origami models.

Menger's Sponge, so named for its Austrian inventor, Karl Menger, uses fractals and mathematical sequences to form a solid composed of incremental cubes. Dr. Jeannine Mosley has embarked upon a quest to reproduce a Level 3 Menger Sponge out of business cards. Read the specifics at Business Card Menger Sponge Project. With the construction of this model, considerations for structural support come into play. See why Level 3 is the greatest depth which can be achieved at Menger's Sponge Structural Considerations.

Exploring the ideas that mathematics in origami is more than just symmetry, squares, rectangles, and other simple geometric concepts, one such website, Math in Origami, takes an in-depth look at how paper folding is more than just creating pretty decorations. The author cites the uses of origami in teaching math and provides numerous links to teacher-created lesson plans, online feature lessons, and the benefits of using such hands-on activities in the classroom. Included is a look at the field of and applications for mathematics and origami, as well as printable handouts and various models and challenge problems.

No longer considered a mere paper craft, one math site uses the term & "trecreational math" to describe the mathematics of origami at Origami. The 3-dimensional, color models shown and others are available in the demonstrations section to the right of the page, and explanations on how traditional rules cannot solve some geometric problems, yet origami has done so definitively.

Beyond the online resources available in understanding and teaching the mathematics of origami, there are several reference materials available for purchase. See Unfolding Mathematics with Unit Origami for middle and high school students. Project Origami-Activities for Exploring Mathematics, by Thomas Hull, can be previewed on Google at Google Books: Project Origami. Links are included to the right of the page for purchasing the book. For a complete review of this book, by Helen Verrill, see Book Review: Project Origami.

The article the Mathematics of Origami was written by Clickinks.com the home of ink cartridges and toner cartridges.