How many times do you have to fold a paper?
The commonly accepted wisdom is that you can’t fold a single sheet of paper in half more than seven times. The problem with folding paper in half multiple times is that the paper’s surface area decreases by half with each fold.
How many times do you need to fold a piece of paper to get to the Moon?
And incredibly, it only takes 42 foldings of a paper to get from the Earth to the Moon, and only about 94 foldings of a paper to make something the size of the entire visible Universe. And now you know how many times you’d have to fold a piece of paper to reach the Moon!
What happens when you fold paper more than 7 times?
It’s commonly accepted that you cannot fold a single sheet of paper in half more than 7 times, no matter what paper finish, size, or basis weight you’re using, for two main reasons: Every time you fold your sheet, you reduce your total surface area by half, so eventually you simply run out of surface area to fold.
Why can you not fold paper 7 times?
Trying to fold an ordinary sheet of A4 paper suggests that even eight times is impossible: the number of layers doubles each time, and the paper rapidly gets too thick and too small to fold. Such ‘geometric growth’ effects are dramatic: in theory, 26 folds would make the paper thicker than the height of Mount Everest.
What happens if you fold paper 42 times?
42 folds will get you to the Moon. 81 folds and your paper will be 127,786 light-years, almost as thick as the Andromeda Galaxy. At 103 folds, you will get outside of the observable Universe, which is estimated at 93 billion light-years in diameter.
Is it impossible to fold a paper 8 times?
It was an accepted belief that folding a piece of paper in half more than 8 times was impossible. On 27 January 2002, high school student, Britney Gallivan, of Pomona, California, USA, folded a single piece of paper in half 12 times and was the first person to fold a single piece paper in half 9, 10, 11, and 12 times.
What if we fold a paper 103 times?
At 103 folds, you will get outside of the observable Universe, which is estimated at 93 billion light-years in diameter.
Is it possible to fold a paper 42 times?
If you were to fold a piece of paper in half 42 times, it would reach the moon. Several of those around the table scoffed at this, exclaiming that a single sheet of paper was simply too thin to have its thickness reach any substantial amount after only a few dozen folds.