WIM no. 17 Spring 2020

מכון ויצמן למדע Art and Science “Flexagons have their own inner logic that is fun to discover, and there is an element of surprise and challenge to it,” says Schwartz, a copywriter in the book-publishing world. About 15 years ago, while attempting to recreate a shape she had made before, Schwartz ended up making a hexagon divided into 12 pie slices. Since then, she has continued creating and exploring new flexagons with great passion, and is considered internationally as a leader in the field. The fun of flexing Sherman, a programmer and flexagon expert, brought a different perspective to the seminar as someone who speaks the language of math—i.e., typology and group theory. In fact, when he finds a surprising way to fold a flexagon, he writes a program to explore it and predict all of the possibilities that may arise. “I try to prove how many different ways there are to rearrange the different phases as you flex through them,” he explains. But still, the programming is not the main thing: “The Flexagon is a little bit like a fidget spinner that you can physically explore. The programs I write just help me learn more about it.” The event organizers say they plan to publish books, videos, and templates related to flexagons. Specifically, they would like to create educational activities that harness the fun of flexing for students and teachers in Israel. In a first, this special math workshop was supported by the United States Embassy in Israel. Ellen Schnitser, the Public Affairs Specialist at the US Embassy, says, “This exciting math initiative will increase the involvement of disparate groups of students—Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab, boys and girls—in [science literacy] subjects, and will have a great multiplier effect.” Weizmann MAGAZINE 62–63 S P R I N G 2 0 2 0