Title: The Symmetry of Folding Paper Dolls (download pdf - alternate )

Author: Brigitte Servatius

Reference: Mathematical Gazette, vol. 81, No. 490, 29–37 (1997)

Abstract: When a parent sees a little girl sitting on the floor cutting paper dolls, many thoughts may come to mind: ``She's keeping out of trouble'', or ``She's making a mess'', or even ``There go my tax returns''. The thought that should have come to my parent's mind, however, was ``One day she'll be a mathematician''. My grandmother, who worked as a dressmaker, often allowed my sister and me to use her razor sharp scissors on the strips of leftover tracing paper. This paper is inspired by a notebook that I kept in grade school when I ``studied'' paper dolls, and the figures are based on dolls found pressed between the pages.

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