We consider well-known surface disclinations by cutting, joining, and folding pieces of paper card. The resulting shapes have a discrete, folded vertex whose geometry is described easily by Gauss's mapping, in particular, we can relate the degree of angular excess, or deficit, to the size of fold line rotations by the area enclosed by the vector diagram of these rotations. This is well known for the case of a so-called “d-cone” of zero angular deficit, and we formulate the same for a general disclination. This method allows us to observe kinematic properties in a meaningful way without needing to consider equilibrium. Importantly, the simple vector nature of our analysis shows that some disclinations are primitive; and that other types, such as d-cones, are amalgamations of them.

• Received 19 April 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.94.013002