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.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
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/.....sinscience
December 30th, 2008 at 12:40 am
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).
December 30th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
(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.
;…( :-)=)