On Mythbusters tonight, they covered an interesting myth: that it is impossible to fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times. My strange brain full of trivia made me exclaim “That myth was already busted, and by a high school student!” Indeed, a few minutes with a search engine revealed the story:
Folding Paper in Half Twelve Times
Note: Britney Gallivan not only busted the myth, but also derived a mathematical model that tells you why it is so hard to fold paper, and establishing limits on the process. That is how she was able to fold a long strip of paper a remarkable 12 times. The Mythbusters glossed over this nice bit of math, which in my mind really deserves more notice.
The Mythbusters did try folding a rectangular piece in alternating directions, beginning with a piece that basically covered the floor of the huge hangars in Moffett Field. They managed a respectable, but not record breaking 11 folds. Nice.
[tags]Mathematics,Mythbusters,Paper folding[/tags]
Note also That Britney had folded a gold sheet in half twelve time by rotating 90 degrees per turn. The general rules are fold a single piece of paper of any size in half a number of times. Mythbusters added the had to be 90 degree truns and also they taped paper together so they did not use single piece of paper. Sorry but mythbusters saying they broke the record is a myth.
Well, to be fair, gold leaf is pretty thin, which helps alot.
mythbusters did get the record. where do you think they could get a piece of paper that big?? They had to use multiple papers.