14-year-old Miles Wu folded origami pattern that holds 10k times its own weight(www.smithsonianmag.com)
253 pointsby bookofjoe4 hours ago18 comments
  • givemeethekeys2 hours 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.
    • nerdsniperan hour ago
      Also, ‘years’ tend to be a lot more hours for kids, and each hour yields more learning due to neuroplasticity. I learned so much faster at 15 than I do at 35. I know more now, which often more than makes up for slower learning, but I can’t learn difficult novel subjects in depth as fast as I once did.

      I’m glad I learned OS in depth during high school via Gentoo linux. And engineering/physics/math in college. It’s very easy to assimilate any new knowledge which can be understood through those areas of first principles.

      But learning more advanced math is quite a task now.

      • 6r1718 minutes ago
        I don't know - i'm 33 ~ now - recently with AI learning is much easier - don't get me wrong I definitely won't say that the brain does not slow down - but I'd definitely argue that we have advantages over kids - be it discipline, knowing how to learn ; and stuff like that - for example let's take coq which is I suppose one of the hardest thing we can learn - you can decompose it in ways myself as a kid or as a 20yo wouldn't even be able to. What I mean is that there is a lot of complexities or stuff i would get stuck upon that I just fly over today and know I'm alright - much better ability to focus in a sense
        • jjmarr10 minutes ago
          I learned coq as a teenager because the name was funny and one defined everything in terms of the `succ` function.

          Never underestimate our motivation.

      • sigmoid10an hour ago
        Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times? Of course you'll pick up on math and physics faster in high school than in college or postgrad, but that's because the problems get way, way harder as you progress. I've found that even in my late 30s I can still easily pick up new skills outside my field of expertise as long as I start with the basics that could also be picked up by a high-schooler. I started learning a new language last year and thanks to modern study apps, I actually find it easier today. Of course it will still take a long time to become an expert, but I'm not sure it would need more total hours than if I had started 20 years ago. It just gets more difficult to allocate the necessary hours for learning.
        • nerdsniper35 minutes ago
          > Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times?

          I have ;-) far too many times! Even going back and taking undergrad math coursework that my engineering curriculum didn't have like Discrete Math or Statistics got a lot harder than calculus / differential equations was when I was younger. I felt like I got less out of each hour, and also couldn't put in as many hours - not just because I have more responsibilities, but also because my brain just gets tired after fewer hours.

      • globalnode9 minutes ago
        I'm learning better now the older I get. More good'erer.
    • uoaeian hour 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.
      • adfman hour ago
        Don't get hug up on "invented". Ruth Asawa registered for (1956) and received US patent 185,504 on June 16, 1959 at the suggestion of her professor, Buckminster Fuller.

        https://theartian.com/ruth-asawa-patent-collaboration/

      • avadodin43 minutes ago
        Being able to hold 10x the weight of paper doesn't sound so impressive that it would require an astrophysicist to invent it.

        I was more ready to accept the headline if it had been invented by the kid.

        Are you telling me you can't roll up 10 origami papers and stand them on a reasonably stable origami pattern?

        • retube42 minutes ago
          it's 10k, 10,000, not 10
          • avadodin16 minutes ago
            lol

            that makes way more sense

            not enough coffee bcak

      • croisillon37 minutes ago
        i hear he didn't even produce the paper himself
      • ForHackernewsan hour ago
        He literally did fold all the folds himself. He didn't even get an LLM to reskin VS Code for him and apply to Y Combinator.
      • nine_kan hour ago
        "Miura" is the name of the astrophysicist. "Ori" (折り) just means "fold", as in "origami" = "fold+paper".
    • dottjtan hour ago
      Rather than age, isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?
      • JumpCrisscross35 minutes ago
        > isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?

        No. It’s a sign of drive and discipline.

        The latter, specifically the focus element, overlaps with autism. But more broadly it does not. (There are a lot of impressive teenagers applying themselves diligently to impressive ends. Most of them are not on the spectrum, though I suspect mild autism is slightly over-represented in that set.)

      • 21 minutes ago
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      • anonym2944 minutes ago
        Not all autism presents with intense narrow interests, and not all expressions of intense narrow interest are autism.

        Would you say the same for a teenage sports prodigy?

        • dottjt42 minutes ago
          Of course. But obviously I wouldn't be referring to those other types of autism in this case. Why would I?
      • dbacar38 minutes ago
        And this is all you can come up with this story?
  • mlhpdx34 minutes ago
    The key here is scale. What works in inches often falls apart at feet. The structure is holding about 33 psi over the area (which is rigidly supported from below), much more along the contact edges. By comparison balsa wood can support significantly more pressure (varies, but well over 100psi) but doesn’t concentrate pressure on edges.

    Is there anything useful about this? Maybe as an inexpensive(?) core for high strength skins?

    • JumpCrisscross30 minutes ago
      > The key here is scale. What works in inches often falls apart at feet

      Does that mean we could increase the orders of magnitude if we made it smaller? Lots of tiny stuff needs mechanical support. And lots of folded small things agglomerated is another way to say biology.

      • Terr_a minute ago
        [delayed]
  • dietr1ch4 minutes ago
    Does this shape hold up good weight distribution properties when 3D-printed? Maybe this could be huge for 3D-printing mostly hollow, yet strong parts that require in fewer plastic and time spent.
  • tgtweakan hour ago
    I remember cutting an IKEA desk top down one side and discovering the inside was just corrugated cardboard under a few layers of laminate. it was trivial to break by shearing it but in a typical construction where the weight is mostly up/down it was obviously sufficient - until you cut the rigid sides off that is...

    While this probably does have incredible Z-axis strength, I can't imagine it being very strong with any kind of lateral loads.

    • jnellis2 minutes ago
      That the construction method of most hollow-core doors in your house.
  • gnabgib4 hours ago
    Small discussion 3 months ago (43 points, 9 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871
  • MagicMoonlightan hour 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.

  • hooloovoo_zoo36 minutes ago
    Looks kinda like an egg carton to me. So if an empty egg carton weighs 50g, that's like saying you could stack 500kg on top. Pretty impressive.
  • pants22 hours 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

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

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

      • bookofjoean hour ago
        I live in the U.S.: I can watch it.

        What is "your country?"

        • abanana42 minutes ago
          It's Lego Masters USA (Fox), rather than the Lego company itself, so I imagine they're being extra-careful with licensing.

          I'm in the UK and it's geoblocked for me.

  • PunchyHamsteran hour ago
    Triangles together strong!
  • IshKebab18 minutes ago
    Ugh, emergency shelter? We already have 50 million emergency shelter designs. It's ok to say this has no practical uses but is very cool.
  • moomoo119 minutes ago
    what a smart kid! wishing him all the best
  • ck22 hours ago
    Could concept be applied to submarine vehicles to exponential increase their resistance to pressure at depth?
    • codeddesign2 hours 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).
  • Aeroi37 minutes ago
    what if, instead you just placed whatever weight you wanted onto a flat unfolded piece of paper.
  • SilentM6844 minutes ago
    Smart teen :)
  • amelius2 hours ago
    Where can we read about the other submissions?
  • darigan hour ago
    [dead]
  • tl2do2 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • xqcgrek236 minutes ago
    These teen science fair winners almost never amount to anything exceptional, and are a product intense parental supervision. Most universities have wised up.