Mrs. Hanford's 4th grade class is making snowflakes. They do so by folding 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of paper and cutting to make an 8.5 by 8.5 square.
After folding it in half twice more, each student cuts shapes out of the sides and unfolds it to see what their snowflake looks like.
Unfortunately, as one student pointed out, real snowflakes are six-sided, not four-sided.
Is there a way to fold a piece of 8.5 by 11 inch (or you can use cm if you want) to make a six-sided snowflake?
If there is, the simpler the better. After all, it is a 4th grade class.
You only have a pair of scissors and your folding ability at your disposal.
Here's a solution that doesn't require making two folds at once to trisect an angle, except it needs two sheets of 8.5 X 11 paper:
1) Fold one sheet paper (call it sheet A) in half the long way, and then fold it in half the long way again. You should have a long strip of paper that if you unfolded it would have 3 vertical creases.
2) Fold your second sheet (call it B) once the long way and then once the short way, so you have a vertical and an horizontal crease that meet at the center of the paper (but don't unfold it).
3) Next, slide sheet A into the last (shorter) crease in sheet B so that it sticks out either end, and together they look like a "T".
4) Now fold sheet B over sheet A so that sheet A is snug between the creases in B. This will form a slightly shorter "T".
5) Now open up sheet B except for your first long crease. now B should have three creases, one at the center, and one on either side of the center crease, separated by the width of the strip you made from sheet A. Lets call these two new creases 'reference creases'. Now we're done with sheet A. From now on i'll refer to sheet B as the only sheet.
6) Here's the tricky part: Grab the point where the center crease meets the folded edge, and the point where one of the reference creases (it doesn't matter which one) meets non-folded edge. Fold and crease along these two points.
7) Now make a similar crease in the same way as 6), only use the reference crease you didn't use before, and fold it the other direction. This should line up with the crease you made in 6). Now you've succeeded in folding your paper into 6 equal chunks.
8) Now, all that remains is to cut off the excess to make a hexagon. Unfold all but the longest crease (from part 2)), and hold it so that the creased side is down. Now fold over one of the diagonal creases (from 6) or 7)) so a corner sticks up. Cut off this corner flush with the non-creased edge of the paper.
9) Repeat 8) with the other diagonal crease.
10) Now you're left with an equilateral triangle with two creased sides. Cut into the creased sides as you see fit, and enjoy!
an easier way (perhaps)
