How many time can you fold a piece of paper in half?

funkyscooter · 20-01-2012 9:46am #1

I can do it 6 times.

Stiffler2 · 20-01-2012 9:53am

A piece of paper can only be folded a certain amount of times.
It doesn't matter what size the piece of paper is.

I think the answer is either 9 or 11 but don't know tbh.

Check out Mythbusters, they did this with a huge piece of paper and an A4 piece of paper and they could fold both the same amount of times.

Stiffler2 · 20-01-2012 9:55am

Here we go, looks like the answer is 7 ( according to Mythbusters )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE

don't know why the embedding option isn't working.

here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE

Miguel_Sanchez · 20-01-2012 9:56am

Of course the real question is how many times would you want to fold a piece of paper?

Morrisseeee · 20-01-2012 9:57am

Once

Old Perry · 20-01-2012 9:58am

Pie

smash · 20-01-2012 9:59am

Stiffler2 wrote: »

Here we go, looks like the answer is 7 ( according to Mythbusters )

Eh, they did 11 there

Pighead · 20-01-2012 10:15am

Pighead tried this yesterday with the intention of folding it 100 times. Knew it had never been done before and have always fancied making it into the Guinness book of records so really went for it. Pighead was in search for legendary status.

Had folded it six times and had plenty of stamina and ideas left when out of the corner of the eye seen a small brown busy little ant making his way up the side of a bowl which was filled with hot rice pudding which Miss Piggy had just made for her dearest.

The ant was now perched on the rim of the bowl and he was looking dead eyed right at the rice pudding. Pighead put down his piece of paper and whispered into the ants ear- (Whispered because ants have really small ears and wasn't sure how many decibels they could handle) "Retreat, you silly little ant. You probably have no idea that the only thing between you and disaster is the strength of that pudding skin."

But the ant looked at me with his miniscule eyes and although no words came out of those eyes it was clear that he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew the dangers. Like Pighead, the ant too was in search of legendary status.

Unfortunately the ant's journey ended almost as soon as it had begun. Unbeknownst to the ant, Miss Piggy makes a very thin skin on her rice pudding which meant he never stood a chance. As Pighead watched him fall down down down down to the bottom of the bowl he put down his piece of folded paper and tossed it into the bin and sat in silent prayer before devouring the beautiful rice pudding. Today wasn't the day for Pighead to become a legend. Today was the day of the ant.

Captain_Generic · 20-01-2012 10:19am

13 apparently: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/01/paper-folding-limits-pushed.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPFnIotfkXo

Domitius Felix Invictus Aurelianus · 20-01-2012 10:26am

At long last one of life unsolved mysteries....sovled

Cianos · 20-01-2012 10:33am

Captain_Generic wrote: »

13 apparently: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/01/paper-folding-limits-pushed.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPFnIotfkXo

The whole point of the rule is that it's a square piece of paper! Obviously if you have a piece of paper hundreds of times longer than it is wide it only depends on how long it actually is.

This makes me smarter than everyone in MIT, hurrah.