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What is the max amount of times one can fold a piece of paper(not other materials)? (size does not matter)?

I've heard one cannot exceed 10 folds when folding in halves. Is this true? Can someone explain?

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    This is not true, as seen on MythBusters.

    "It was impossible to fold a piece of letter-sized (8.5" x 11", 216 mm × 279 mm) 20 lb (75 g/m2) copy paper with perpendicular folds more than seven times. The thickness of the paper exponentially grew with each successive fold, and after the seventh fold the paper was just too thick to fold without breaking. Grant showed if you fold the paper in the same direction 4 times than 4 times the other way, it is possible to fold the paper 8 times. The MythBusters then laid out a football field-sized sheet of interconnected paper (170 ft x 220 ft, 51.8 m x 67.1 m), and due to the reduction of its area-to-thickness ratio (and with help from a steam roller and a forklift), were able to perpendicularly fold the paper 11 times. Other methods of folding a piece of paper (such as with alternating folds) proved able to break the fold threshold of 7 for letter-sized paper, and perpendicular folds of more than 7 are theoretically possible with thinner paper."

  • 1 decade ago

    Well I heard that it was 7 times but I think it has been disproved

    Taken from Wikipedia

    Curiosity: It was formerly thought that it was impossible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than 7 times; usually it is difficult to reach even 6 times. This has been publically debunked by a high school student named Britney Gallivan, cleverly using "Single Direction Folding." She was also able to derive the mathematical limits of paper folding, and folded a piece of paper in half 12 times, using alternate directions, like Mythbusters later did. Nine folds was first achieved by Nisan Catron using "Single Direction Folding", a freshman student at the University of Oklahoma in the fall semester of 1996.

    The television series MythBusters busted the myth of the 7 folds by folding taped together sheets in half and turning it 90 degrees each time, for a total of 11 folds. [1][2] This was accomplished using 17 large rolls of paper taped together to form a very large yet relatively thin "sheet."

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I heard no matter how big the paper is, you cannot fold it more than 7 times. Could be as big as you want, but no more than 7.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Actually it's seven. It has to do with thickness and tensile strength.

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