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Paper-Folding and Number Theory

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Part of the book series: Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics ((UTM))

Abstract

We begin this story with the Greeks and their fascination with the challeng of constructing regular convex polygons–that is, polygons with all sides of the same length and all interior angles equal. We refer to such N-sided polygons as regular convex N-gons, and we may suppress the word “regular” or the word “convex” if no confusion would result. The Greeks wanted to construct these polygons using what we call Euclidean tools, namely, an unmarked straight edge and a compass.

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References

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hilton, P., Holton, D., Pedersen, J. (1997). Paper-Folding and Number Theory. In: Mathematical Reflections. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1932-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1932-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7345-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1932-3

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