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bookofjoe

14-year-old Miles Wu folded origami pattern that holds 10k times its own weight smithsonianmag.com

givemeethekeysan hour ago

Don't get hung up on "14 year old". Pay attention to "took up origami 6 years ago". That's 6 years of passionate learning, experimenting and improvement.

nerdsnipera minute ago

Also, ‘years’ tend to be a lot more hours for kids, and each hour yields more learning due to neuroplasticity.

uoaei24 minutes ago

Also don't get hung up on "folded". He hasn't innovated a design (it was invented by a Japanese astrophysicist, Miura-Ori), merely measured sustainable load across different designs.

nine_k12 minutes ago

"Miura" is the name of the astrophysicist. "Ori" (折り) just means "fold", and in "origami" = "fold+paper".

MagicMoonlight26 minutes ago

So what is the ideal pattern and how can you build a shelter with it?

I think it would be fun to build a playhouse out of it.

nine_k14 minutes ago

I think that design has the easiest application in something like corrugated cardboard, as the middle layer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miura_fold

gnabgib3 hours ago

Small discussion 3 months ago (43 points, 9 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871

dangan hour ago

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

14yo won $25k for origami that holds 10k times its weight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871 - Dec 2025 (9 comments)

pants2an hour ago

Fun when these things hold a surprising amount of weight. Reminds me when these two engineers on Lego Masters made a bridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WT6TB15yE

sysworld14 minutes ago

wtf, why lego, whhhy? "The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

edit: What, they geoblocked a ~1min clip, wow.

bookofjoeop8 minutes ago

I live in the U.S.: I can watch it.

What is "your country?"

PunchyHamster29 minutes ago

Triangles together strong!

ck2an hour ago

Could concept be applied to submarine vehicles to exponential increase their resistance to pressure at depth?

codeddesign36 minutes ago

This is weight distribution on a flat plain. Think of Roman Arches. On a curved plain, weight distribution of THIS origami falls apart as pressure is added horizontally (not just vertically).

ameliusan hour ago

Where can we read about the other submissions?

nuclearniceran hour ago

It looks like the top 10% from 6th to 8th grade Society of Science fairs are invited to participate. They are then selected down to a top 300[1] and a top 30.[2] You can find a project name for the top 300 and a paragraph on each of the top 30.

[1] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-top-300-junior-in... [2] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-finalists/

bookofjoeopan hour ago

The top 30 finalists are listed here:

https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-project-showcase/

darig12 minutes ago

[dead]

tl2do44 minutes ago

[flagged]

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