once we have studied and understood the way paper folds

and unfolds, we can apply those patterns to things

that are very different from paper.

I hope by bringing the tools of mathematics

into my origami design that I can then fold something

that's beautiful and that's unexpected.

My name is Robert Lang, and I'm a physicist

and an origami artist.

Origami is the Japanese name for the art of folding paper,

and most origami is folded from a single sheet of paper

with no cuts or tears.

I have loved origami my entire life.

I've pursued it ever since I was a kid,

but my study was science and engineering.

I worked for NASA doing research on lasers,

but throughout that whole time I had been pursuing origami,

developing designs, and writing books.

In 2001, I quit my job to try to make a career

out of origami.

I've worked on a couple of different folding patterns

that were round and would wrap into a cylindrical geometry

to fit into a rocket; and I developed an airbag in a car

that inflates from a small, folded bundle.

So, whenever an engineer creates something that opens and closes

in a controlled way, they can make use of

the folding patterns of origami.

Over the years, math has allowed me to realize

as an artist, shapes and creations that I couldn't achieve

any other way.

Traditional origami was relatively simple.

The designs would have taken maybe 20 or 30 steps at most,

but today, origami pieces can be so complicated that

they can have tens, hundreds, maybe even a thousand steps.

When I'm folding, it's like working with an old friend.

It's like dancing with a partner whose moves I know.

If I move this way, I know my partner is going to move

that way, and so I explore the math, develop the equations,

solve the equations, create the folding pattern,

and then I find out what it looks like,

and, as often as not, it is beautiful.

For me, the driving force is that there's always

something new to try: a new problem, a new subject,

a new shape that I didn't think I was able to create before,

but now I think I know how to realize it, and each time

I solve a problem I get this wonderful feeling,

and you want more of those feelings.