Here’s a question for you: If you take a newspaper and repeatedly fold it in half about 100 times, how thick will it end up being?
Your answer doesn’t need to be exact. Just give me a ballpark.
Reply: That depends on how thick the paper is. But however thick the paper is, it will be 200 times thicker than the paper was not folded in half
Actually, it will be thicker than the entire universe. Folding means exponentiation. 2^100 = a massive number.
The point is that none of your arguments are scientific. They are intuitive. And as my little paper folding question above showed, intuition is not a very good mechanism for reasoning.
*Updated May 11, 2009*
Here is a video of Mythbusters folding a football field size piece of paper 10 times.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE
FYI – I don’t even remember how this post got onto my blog. I guess I was interested in how wildly different the explanations of this were…
In a related, story, read how one outstanding student debunked
a common myth…
Excerpt: When my son was near the end of his primary school years, I thought that it was time that I should impart some of my Weird Freaky Science Wisdom – and have a little bit of fun as well. I told him that I would give him a million dollars if he could fold a piece of paper in half, and in half again, and so on for a total of 10 times. Of course he tried, and of course he failed.
I knew that this would happen, because it was “Accepted Wisdom” that it was impossible to fold a piece of paper in half 10 times (or seven, or nine, for that matter.). I told him that it couldn’t be done, even if he used paper the size of a football field. But I now know that I was wrong.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/12/21/1523497.htm?site=science/greatmomentsinscience
If the news paper was a regular one ( about 6 pages then folded 4 time in the first place in other words 20 pages thick already)
then folded 100 times equals 2000 pages thick or (20 x 100 = 2000)
and if the newspaper was an average Newsprint thickness or 0.0025 inches then it would be 5.0 inches thick (compressed or no space between pages and all folds very well creased)
but with the folds not creased (about double the thickness of the fold) but the air not a factor for thickness it would be 10.0 inches
but with air (about 0.0025 per page) and the folds not creased it would be about 20 inches (0.0025 x 2 = 0.005 x 20 x 100 x 2 = 20)
(I’m not sure what the paper thickness would be if it was trying to “unfold” so ill leave that part out.)
so it would be..: The Thickness of the Paper -times- the thickness of the crease in the fold then the sum of that equation -times- number of pages (if any) already there -times- number of folds -times- thickness caused per page by air )
P.S.: there may be a simpler way to solve this equation but i just did this math to solve it since i had a few minutes. Also contact me about this on my YouTube account CounterStrikeMax01 thanks! 😉
P.S.S.: 2^100 = 1.2676506 x 3000 = 3802.9518 “Not so massive of a number” And the world record for number of folds is 11 (set by The MythBusters).
(I’m not sure what the paper thickness would be if it was trying to “unfold” so ill leave that part out.)
so it would be..: (The Thickness of the Paper “a” -times- the thickness of the crease in the fold “b” -times- number of pages (if any) already there “c” -times- number of folds “d” -times- thickness caused per page by air “f” equals thickness of all folds/pages. “x”)
a • b • c • d • f = x or 0.0025 x 2 x 20 x 100 x 2 = 20
P.S. sorry for any errors in this equation.
;…( :-)=)
Actually, the real answer is around 34 thousand million lightyears. Quite big really.
Who taught you guys to do math.
0.0025in x (2^100)= 6.3×10^27in/12in in a ft= 5.25×10^26ft/5280 ft in a mile = 9.9×10^22 miles. There are 5.88×10^12 miles in a light year so 9.9×10^22miles/5.88×10^12 miles in a light year= 1.68×10^10 light years. that is 16.8 billion light years.
Thank you for posting that youtube Mythbusters video! I’ll add it to the post.
Hey everyone, good calculations for those of you who used the exponential growth, but if you think about it, folding it 100 times would only yield 2^99 (due to the first fold gives you two). Just a fun fact!
Ardy-
Actually it IS 2^100. The first fold makes the paper twice as thick, or 2^1. The second fold is 2^2, and the 100th fold is 2^100.
“The point is that none of your arguments are scientific. They are intuitive. And as my little paper folding question above showed, intuition is not a very good mechanism for reasoning.”
So: ‘Intuition fails to provide an accurate answer according to a test sample with a population of one, therefore intuition is _not a very good mechanism for reasoning_.’
How ironic it is that you make such an arrogant statement in which you belittle someone for their errors when your very own statement is so blatantly fallacious. Are yours the words of an intelligent mind or some simpleton who watches elementary television programs?
whats the point of folding it 100 times? hehehe
Holy smokes, the guy who said 2^100 = 3802.9518 must be 9 years old or something. I didn’t even know it was possible to do a math calculation so wrong until I read that. He didn’t come remotely close to trying to solve that correctly.
I guess there are idiots who believe that 10^30 = 3000, really, what is this world coming to.
Just so you know, 2^100 = 1.2676506 × 10^30, and a bit more than that since even the google calculator isn’t precise enough.
wow….go outside and get some fresh air people