How many times do you need to fold a piece of paper to reach the sun?
In fact, if you had a sheet of paper, and folded it in half 50 times, how thick would it be? The answer is about 100 million kilometres, which is about two thirds of the distance between the Sun and the Earth. And so Accepted Wisdom on Paper-Folding ruled, until 2001.
What would happen if you folded a piece of paper 100 times?
With just over 100 folds, the thickness of the paper would be equal to 93 billion light-years. The reason for this is exponential growth. Here’s how the thickness of the paper would grow due to exponential growth.
Why can’t we fold paper 7 times?
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. With the assistance of a forklift and steamroller, they get the paper to fold 11 times.
What happens if you fold 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.
Why is folded paper stronger?
Paper is very weak under compression and is somewhat stronger under tension (i.e., it collapses when you push the ends together but it doesn’t pull apart easily). By folding or rolling the paper, you create a “thickness” which allows the paper to reinforce itself and not collapse so easily.
What if we fold paper 103 times?
If you fold an A4 sheet of paper 103 times its thickness will roughly be the size of the Universe. Turns out, according to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, if you do this 103 times the sheet’s thickness will be larger than the observable Universe: 93 billion light-years.
Can you fold a paper 8 times?
Forget your origami skills, folding an A4 piece of paper more than seven times is theoretically impossible. Challenge accepted! 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.
What if we fold a paper 103 times?
How many times Would you have to fold paper to reach 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 a piece of paper?
Initially we have a paper which is 0.1mm thick. If we fold the paper once, it is now 0.2mm in thickness. If we fold it one more time, it is now 0.4mm thick. If we fold it one more time, it is now 0.8mm thick. Did you see the pattern? Every time we fold the paper it gets twice as thick.
How big is the distance From the Earth to the Moon?
The mean distance to the Moon from the Earth is about 384,000 km, or — if we remember a page is 0.01 cm thick — about 3.84 x 10^12 pages away. So you’d expect that you’ll need an awful lot of foldings to get there, wouldn’t you?
How many folds in a roll of toilet paper?
Image credit: Adrian Paenza. The practical world record, for those of you wondering, goes to this group of students, who — with a 13,000 foot-long roll of toilet paper — manage to achieve a whopping 13 folds!