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If you could fold a piece of paper in half 50 times...

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  • 17-06-2012 9:23pm
    #1
    charles_92688
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭


    How thick would it be? Assume the paper is 1/500th of an inch thick to start.

    No calculator allowed.


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    #2
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,961 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Is this what you're going to do on this forum? Post puzzles that you've read elsewhere on the Internet?

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #3
    TheBody
    Registered Users Posts: 5,619 ✭✭✭TheBody


    The sheet is still 1/500th of an inch think no matter how many times you fold it!! :pac:


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    #4
    charles_92688
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭charles_92688


    bnt wrote: »
    Is this what you're going to do on this forum? Post puzzles that you've read elsewhere on the Internet?

    What's wrong? You don't want this website's click count to go up?


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    #5
    charles_92688
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭charles_92688


    TheBody wrote: »
    The sheet is still 1/500th of an inch think no matter how many times you fold it!! :pac:



    No.


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    #6
    smcgiff
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Keep it up guys - this is the kind of thread that makes accountants look interesting


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    #7
    3DataModem
    Registered Users Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭3DataModem


    charles_92688 wrote: »
    How thick would it be? Assume the paper is 1/500th of an inch thick to start.

    No calculator allowed.

    A few dozen million miles, or thereabouts.

    But it is impossible to do by every reasonable definition of "paper" or "fold".


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    #8
    charles_92688
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭charles_92688


    3DataModem wrote: »
    A few dozen million miles, or thereabouts.

    But it is impossible to do by every reasonable definition of "paper" or "fold".


    That's about right, about 1/3 the distance to the sun.

    Yes, we wrote "If you could...."


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    #9
    charles_92688
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭charles_92688


    smcgiff wrote: »
    Keep it up guys - this is the kind of thread that makes accountants look interesting


    What do engineers use for birth control?
    Their personalities.


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    #10
    pwurple
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,449 ✭✭✭✭pwurple


    Ew, inches.

    You'll certainly need an enormous piece of paper anyway to get 50 folds.

    Each time you fold it it halves in length and doubles in height. Eventually you'll get to a point where the fold is bigger than the height of the paper and you're stuck.


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    #11
    locum-motion
    Registered Users Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    pwurple wrote: »
    Ew, inches.

    You'll certainly need an enormous piece of paper anyway to get 50 folds.

    Each time you fold it it halves in length and doubles in height. Eventually you'll get to a point where the fold is bigger than the height of the paper and you're stuck.

    You get to a point after I think 7 folds where it is impossible to fold any more, regardless of the size or thickness of the paper. However, the point you're missing is that the OP basically acknowledged that it is impossible, and said "If you could..."


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    #12
    Yakuza
    Registered Users Posts: 5,141 ✭✭✭Yakuza


    Mythbusters (with the aid of a hangar-sized sheet of paper, a steamroller and a forklift) got to 11 folds, yielding something 2048 times the original thickness.

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


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    #13
    eoins23456
    Registered Users Posts: 603 ✭✭✭eoins23456


    (2^50)/500 inches?


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