It would have been Martin Gardner’s 101st birthday today (he was born in 1914 and died in 2010) and while he certainly didn’t invent, or even discover, hexahexaflexagons he was one of the first people to popularise them with an article in Scientific American in 1956.

We’ve used hexahexaflexagons as an example of a finite-state machine in our workshops and to illustrate computational thinking about graphs and maps.

You can find our free booklet about hexahexaflexagons, and how to use them, on our HexaHexaFlexagon Automata page where you can also download full colour printable flexagons to fold and glue at home (or at school, or at work). And now we also have some blank ones (and here’s one with three on a page) that you can print and colour in with your own designs.

For some inspiration have a look at Vi Hart’s series of YouTube videos on hexaflexagons, which are rather good fun.

If you’ve not folded a hexahexaflexagon before here’s Prof Paul Curzon showing how it’s done

Further reading
Flexagon but Not Forgotten: Celebrating Martin Gardner’s Birthday (Scientific American, 2012)