Unfolding polyhedra

Ezra Miller
School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota

Abstract: We've all seen them before: paper or cardboard cutouts that you're supposed to glue to form convex polyhedra. Just how did anyone figure out how to make them? Given a convex polyhedron, does there always exist a cutout that works? Come hear some surprising answers about what we know and what we don't know; find out about unfolding, squashing, and otherwise laying polyhedra flat. Lots of it works in higher dimensions, but it's all interesting in our own three spatial dimensions, too.