How folding paper can get you to the moon - Adrian Paenza

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-folding...

Can folding a piece of paper 45 times get you to the moon? By seeing what happens when folding just one piece of paper, we see the unbelievable potential of exponential growth. This lesson will leave you wanting to grab a piece of paper to see how many times you can fold it!


Lesson by Adrian Paenza, animation by TED-Ed.

• Category

  Education

[GhostEmblem]

The total volume of the paper will always remain the same this means that as the surface area is halved the thickness or height doubles.

But its not as simple as, this is because an amount of surface area is lost with each fold equal to the twice the current height of the paper to make up one of the new sides.

This already means that once the height of the paper exceeds its surface area it will be impossible to fold it in half again.

[Krazy0ManMan]

Myth busters disproved that, they got a VERY large piece of paper and were able to fold it way more than 7 times

[jesse dis]

image if the paper didnt fold .. according to this video that means the thichness is 2 to the power of one (that is 1*1) ... that makes the 0.002cm thick paper 1cm thick? .. i really think you should multiply it with 0.002 then to get the correct awnser. didnt anybody notice this ?

[daveCATpiano]

This should be completely true, if you take a piece of paper of one square light year in surface area : Then you can fold it 45 times : )

[JohnnyKidder]

watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE

They got 11, for a football-field-sized sheet

[Krazy0ManMan]

With a regular piece of paper, only seven yes. But with a massive sheet of paper it is possible to get more, it is all about surface area.

[Brandon Byrd]

They actually confirmed the myth

[nuggerkip]

Fucking retard. [insert random smiley face]

[TheBluMeeny]

I loved that episode