What would happen if you fold a paper 48 times?

Replies

• 

  Ankita Katdare

  I have actually tried that as a school-going kid. I tried folding a newspaper in half as many times as possible. And from what I remember, I couldn't go past the 8th fold. It just became impossible to fold - no matter how large a paper you begin with. 😨
• 

  vinod1993

  AbraKaDabra

  I have actually tried that as a school-going kid. I tried folding a newspaper in half as many times as possible. And from what I remember, I couldn't go past the 8th fold. It just became impossible to fold - no matter how large a paper you begin with. 😨

  That's just practical. Bravo, You've done 8 folds for the 8th fold is not easily possible to make.😀 I want a theoretical answer.That's why I wanted you to suppose that a paper can be folded 'n' times.
• 

  clZazy

  let the thickness of the paper is x(which in our case = 1/1000 cm)
  now after first fold it will be doubled, that is = 2x
  in this way thickness would be doubled after every fold.
  
  x --> 2x --> 4x --> 8x --> 16x....
  
  this way final width = (2 to the power 48) * x
  
  = (2^48) * 1/1000 cm
  = 281474976710.656 cm
  or 28,14,749 km approx
  
  which is nearly 7 times the distance of the moon from the earth!! 😨
  
  and that too when we assumed thickness of paper 1/1000 th of a cm, way too less.😉
• 

  vinod1993

  Excellent. 😀 But it's 8 times the distance of moon from the earth.Anyway an excellent answer.This is called exponential growth.
• 

  simplycoder

  Its a myth,
  Google up for Britney Galvin...
  she has solved this problem. with a mathematical proof.
  I tried to do the same with a bus ticket, and even the 7th fold was impossible.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Surprisingly, one can't even fold a piece of cloth beyond 5-6 folds. I tried this so many times ever since I was a kid. Just wondering if there's a mathematical explanation to why this doesn't work?
  
  Or can we generalize this to the 'max number of folds'? But I can already imagine any malleable material being folded 1000 times. What am I thinking now? 😨
• 

  ISHAN TOPRE

  "As the number of folds increases, the combined thickness also increases 2^n. where n= number of folds "
  Your answer lie in above statement.
• 

  vinod1993

  That was what I meant. I wanted you all to suppose that it can be folded this many times. I just wanted you all to imagine. Practically it's impossible. Everyone might have heard about the famous phrase, "No one can fold a paper more than 7 times" But this myth was broken when high schoolers in UK managed to fold a toilet paper 13 times. Yes, a mathematical relation is given by Britney Galvin. You can also take a look at this.
  #-Link-Snipped-#
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  vinod1993

  Yes, a mathematical relation is given by Britney Galvin. You can also take a look at this.
  #-Link-Snipped-#

  Gallivan was able to fold a single 4,000-foot-long piece 😲 of toilet paper in half 12 times, establishing a new record. She also wrote a book, titled “How to Fold Paper in Half Twelve Times: An ‘Impossible Challenge’ Solved and Explained.”#-Link-Snipped-#
  
  But this is also uncatogariged as the paper was folded one side only not cross.
  Well impossible challenges created to be break.
• 

  Jeffrey Arulraj

  arbitrary assumptions can only be done here and no practical feasability in this issue