The Origami Forum

Ok ok, I will admit right now that I am not a "folder" and I don't practice origami. However, after trying my project on my own a few times, I have become interested in origami. Anyway, I have a school project to make a frog. The only thing is, I have to make it jump from one table to another,(about 3-5 feet). If it doesn't make it, I fail. I tried looking it up on google for some tips, but I couldn't find anything. The best thing I found was a "superfrog". That didn't work either. So, I thought I would come here and ask for your advice. Maybe you know a website I could go to, and tips that will make it jump further, or if you knew how to make a frog that would jump 5 feet. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum

You can find several variations of jumping frogs on the top of this page here:
http://www.geocities.com/foldingca/action.html

3-5 feet is a big distance so you will have to experiment with different kinds and sizes of paper to get your desired result. I would suggest to use rather stiff paper (but I'm not sure). I also have the feeling that a smaller frog might be better than a larger frog. And then of course the distance also depends on the way you make the frog jump.
So I'm afraid that the only advice I can give you is to experiment as much as possible....

i used a 12 by 12 in sheet of cardstock paper and i got mine to jump about 6-7 feet

I wish I had assignments like "make an origami jumping frog" at school !
This must be a really original school

Yeah, I have been wondering about that before. I often get Email requests like "I need an Origami *insert a random thing here* for a school project". Also a lot of pupils/students seem to be giving talks about Origami.... I definitely went to the wrong school

Alexandre wrote:I wish I had assignments like "make an origami jumping frog" at school !
This must be a really original school

Well, it is a science project. She gave us a sheet that shows us how to make a frog, but it doesn't jump. Then we have to change it, so it "evolves" (evolution) and it can jump from one table to another.

Should I use the origami paper? Or should I use something a little thicker like construction paper? But, which design should I use?

Normal Origami paper is definitely too thin to make a good jumping frog.
Something thicker like cardstock paper (as rokonacdc suggested) would be better.

To tell you the truth, I have never heard of cardstock paper. I have construction paper, I don't know if that is any good.

So... just try.

I have found out that smaller is better. So, I'm going to make a bunch of these. You guys think that should work? Also, I wanted to make this one but the directions are confusing. If anyone can understand that, could you please explain the directions a little better. Thanks, I appreciate all your help.[/url]

I tried both, and they "works".
Which step you don't understand in the second one ? It is quite easy, the "directions" are well explained.

they are both very simple but i do believe the first one works better and that is the one i made and i also believe the bigger the better

Ok, I was able to get them both. But, the first one turned out to be better. And well, the smaller I made it the furhter it went. Only thing is I need a little more distance. Should I try to make it even smaller, or is there anything else I could do to make it go further?

I sugest this one (I found it at Gerwin's post):
http://sarah.fredart.com/diagrams/frog.jpg
But folding in half at step 7 is too much, my experiences say less, about 1/3. And the smaller the frog the longer the distance for jumping.

PS What distance is 5 feets in SI units?

5 feets is 1.5m

You should bookmark http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/length it's very useful