Bringing Orbifolds out of the Plane: Kaleidoscopes, Gyrations, Wonders, and Miracles
Ben Gould and S. Louise Gould

Proceedings of Bridges 2020: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Education, Culture
Pages 507–512
Workshop Papers

Abstract

Mathematics teachers, artists using mathematical symmetry in their work, and curious mathematicians can benefit from becoming familiar with John Conway’s unifying work on symmetry. Conway expanded on William Thurston’s concept of orbifolds by developing a set of notations, along with an accounting system for them called “cost,” which allows simple arithmetic to be used to determine what types of patterns are possible. Conway and Thurston described many types of spaces, but we will focus only on patterns in the plane. Conway presents orbifolds as objects made by repeatedly folding patterns onto themselves until there is just one copy of a fundamental region. This workshop will provide hands-on experience with the orbifold signatures and calculating the cost of a pattern. We will introduce tools for designing patterns and build physical orbifolds from specific patterns.

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