If we fold a piece of paper 42 times, its thickness will actually be equal to the distance between the Earth and the Moon. How many more times do we have to fold a piece of paper so that its thickness is twice the distance between the Earth and the Moon? (2024)

FAQs

If we fold a piece of paper 42 times, its thickness will actually be equal to the distance between the Earth and the Moon. How many more times do we have to fold a piece of paper so that its thickness is twice the distance between the Earth and the Moon? ›

To get the twice of the distance between the Earth and the Moon, we need to fold the paper 43 times, i.e., 43−42=1 extra fold, we need to make to double the distance. Q. If we fold a piece of paper 42 times, its thickness will actually be equal to the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

What is the thickness after 42 folds? The distance between the earth and the moon is around 384,400 kilometers (remember 1 km = 1,000,000 mm). After 42 folds, would the paper reach the moon? (439,804,651,110.4 mm = 439,804.7 km, so yes, it would reach the moon because 439,804.7 > 384,400)

Standard copy paper has thickness of 100 μm, which is 1/10000th of 1 meter. 2^42 equals roughly to 4.4 trillion. If you could fold the paper 42 times, its thickness would be 440000 km, which is more than the distance between the Moon and the Earth. Moon-Earth distance is about 384000 km.

Theoretically, folding a standard sheet of paper 42 times could, reach the moon (at around 384,400 km or 238,900 miles), while 103-folds of paper will get you beyond the observable universe, extending across 93 billion light years.

Each fold doubles the thickness, leading to exponential growth. When you fold a piece of paper, its thickness effectively doubles with each fold. The initial thickness is 0.001 cm. After one fold, it becomes 0.002 cm (0.001 cm * 2).

A paper will torn as it is not very elastic. On folding it so many times, it's thickness is gonna be astronomical. It is not possible to get a paper huge enough so that it can be folded so many times. We are gonna need immense amount of force to fold such a thick thing.

If you could keep folding it, at 23 folds it would be one kilometer (3,280 feet) thick! At 42 folds, it would extend to the Moon and, finally, at a whopping 103 folds, that piece of paper would exceed the size of the observable universe at over 93 billion light-years in diameter!

That is, every fold doubles the paper thickness / page count. The equation is simple binary math 2^8 = 256 layers of paper. You cannot fold paper 8times for the same reason you cannot fold a 128page book in half.

Forget your origami skills, folding an A4 piece of paper more than seven times is theoretically impossible. Challenge accepted! Trying to fold an ordinary sheet of A4 paper suggests that even eight times is impossible: the number of layers doubles each time, and the paper rapidly gets too thick and too small to fold.

With just over 100 folds, the thickness of the paper would be equal to 93 billion light-years. The reason for this is exponential growth. Here's how the thickness of the paper would grow due to exponential growth. The average paper thickness in 1/10th of a millimeter (0.0039 inches.)

How many folds of paper to pierce the universe? ›

The myth: You can't fold a paper in half more than eight times. * The reality: Given a paper large enough—and enough energy—you can fold it as many times as you want. The problem: If you fold it 103 times, the thickness of your paper will be larger than the observable Universe: 93 billion light-years. Seriously.

Fold a piece of paper 103 times and you'll reach the end of the universe | indy100.

How many times can you fold a piece of paper? In 2002, Britney Gallivan, then a junior in high school in Pomona, California, folded a single piece of paper in half 12 times. She currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most times to fold a sheet of paper in half.