How many times is the limit to fold the paper in half?

(Photo byJared)

"Even with paper of any size and thickness, if you fold it by half, the limit will come in 8 timesI think that there are many people who have heard the popular thing called "myths". Even if it is thin paper, even if it diffracts 8 times, the total thickness becomes 256 times, and it can not be folded unless it is a press machine .... Is it really the case?

Details are below.
Folding Paper in Half Twelve Times

To the question "How many times will the limits come when folding paper in half?", For example, Mythbusters in the United StatesDoubtful legendChallenge was held on several TV programs, including ").

In this program we succeeded in folding soccer field size paper eleven times.

YouTube - MythBusters - Folding Paper Seven plus times


Also, in 2001, Britney Galivan who was a high school student at the time found a formula "How much paper is necessary to fold paper a half in half?" In 2002, we succeeded in using 1200 m in length of custom-made toilet paper and making it 12 times half.

Mr. Britney who broke the toilet paper in half and succeeded eleventh.


By the way the official is like this. You can find the length L required to fold a sheet of thickness t n times. Since the required length is proportional to the paper thickness, it seems that the thinner the thinner it is, the shorter it is.


It seems that it was standing under the idea that the length is lost by the semicircle whose thickness is the radius every 1 diffraction.


Here, when folding at right angle to the previous crease. You can find the length W of a side of a square paper required to n-diffract a sheet of thickness t.


By the way, in the case of toilet paper with a thickness of 0.11 mm, it can be roughly set to the height of Mt. Fuji when 25 diffracts.

Calculate how many sheets of 0.11 mm toilet paper will be 3776 m
(3 776 * 100 * 10) / 0.11 = 34, 327, 272.7

Determine if it approaches this number by the power of 2
2 ^ 25 = 33, 554, 432

25 The length of the toilet paper required to diffract

Officially assign values
(3.14 * 0.11 * ((2 ^ 25) + 4) * ((2 ^ 25) - 1)) / 6 = 6.48143104 * 10 ^ 13

Convert millimeter to kilometers
6.48143104 * 10 ^ 13/10 ^ 6 = 6.46143104 * 10 ^ 7

It will be 64 million kilometers. This is a length that can make the earth 1600 rounds ... It seems difficult to prepare a bit.