snoop

The Challenge is to try and fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times (it's harder than it sounds people, I have heard that it's impossible to do) . . .

I managed 6 folds with varying sizes of paper . .

Sorry, No Prize . . . .other than the satisfaction of beating me . .

Let the challenge begin.

nb: needs to be standard paper, no grease paper or the like !!

Silvy

Funny challenge that is...
Using A4 (~letter) sized paper I managed 6 times...

You start out pretty confident, but it's deceiving! 1-5 is easy 6 is getting difficult and 7 is impossible!

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Munku

Yes it's impossible, I read the mathmatical reasoning behind it, something about x^ something power folds or something. Whatever too much for me.

uncle phil

i will try toilet paper in the morning...

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napalm

haha, yea i've heard of this before...and i remember trying it with quite a few pieces of paper. so far i havent been able to do it. but, what if you had a sheet of paper that is only as thick as regular notebook or printer paper and is, let's say, 50'x50'?

i dont know why, but for some reason i feel like it would work if the paper was thin and extremely long/wide....maybe i'm way off though.

bermuDa

using a 3x5" memo paper i managed 7 folds. the resulting piece of paper is a little smaller than a cubic centimeter.

also might be possible with rice paper.

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JadziaDax

yes... and here it is in an easier explanation:

imagine you're not folding but cutting, that is, on the first fold/cut you would have 2 pieces of paper, second fold would have four, etc...

first fold = 2 pieces of paper (2 = 2^1)
second fold = 4 pieces of paper (4 = 2^2)
third fold = 8 pieces of paper (8 = 2^3)
fourth fold = 16 pieces of paper (16 = 2^4)
fifth fold = 32 pieces of paper (32 =2^5)
xth fold = 2^x

so you can see the exponential growth of the numbers of pieces of paper you'd have by the 7th fold (2^7 = 128).

It's a known fact that no matter how large the piece of paper is, by the 5th fold, it starts to get a little difficult, and on the 6th fold, it's near impossible. After that, the folding ends.

Munku

Ahh yes tehre it is, way to go Jadzia.

snoop

Jadzia

Wow . . . . nail on the head . . . sounds easy but . .

SnOop

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paddyjoe

just make sure it's BEFORE you use it

sadistikdreams

Hah! I did it ten times with fax paper.

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nash

I've done it with tissue paper but I guess that's cheating. I think you might get a little farther if you "weaken" the paper first by crumpling it and recrumpling it a few times. Yeah, I was bored as a kid.

Munku

That's impossible Sadistik...