After modeling the maple seed with cut paper (actually 3x5 card stock) I decided to use thinner and lighter paper to reduce the wing loading. Maple seeds have wings so thin you can read words through them, if they are held against the text. I started with notepaper, which is lighter than card stock. The first seed did not rotate reliably, but a second larger seed with a lower wing loading worked perhaps 8 out of 10 tosses.
The success of the second model led to the development of the origami maple seed used as the basis for most of the following designs and experiments. It is the green model at the right of three (The red model shows the other side, and is used as the standard to compare to the other models. The model was folded from the thin foil wrapper that covers an Andes® mint. The initial model worked most of the time and autorotated, but was improved by Prof. Cathy Yeotis of Wichita State University. She took the model, tried it, and then added folding steps 6, 7 and 8, which increased the weight along the leading edge of the seed. It now worked 100% of the time! Thank you, Cathy!
