How Many times would you need to fold a piece of paper to make it big enough to reach the moon from the earth?

Question

I know its impossible to fold more than 7-8 times. This is a theoretical question

Answer 1

42 folds to the Moon
51 folds to the Sun
53 folds to Jupiter
56 folds to Pluto
69 folds to the nearest star
70 folds to the nearest extra-solar planet

Most people do not believe these answers as they are counter-intuitive, so I will talk you through it in easy stages. The point to grasp is that every ten folds means just over a thousand times increase in the height of the resulting pile of paper.

A ream of ordinary 70 gsm photocopy paper is 500 sheets and about 2 inches thick,

So let us say that after 10 folds of our theoretically infinitely large (i.e. as large as we need it to be) piece of paper we have 1,024 thicknesses (2^10) and that that is 4 inches thick (a third of a foot).

After 20 folds we have 2^20 thicknesses = 4096 inches = 341 feet 4 inches.

The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall, so after 22 folds of the paper it has grown taller than the height of a 102-floors-tall skyscraper,

There are 5280 feet in a mile,

After 30 folds we have 2^30 thicknesses = 349,184 feet 4 inches = 116,395 yards = 66.13 miles. i.e. it was over a mile high after 24 folds and more than 2 miles high after 25 folds

Mount Everest is only 5 miles high so the pile of paper was taller than Mount Everest after 27 folds.

The moon is 238,000 miles away on average (let us not worry about apogee and perigee).

After 40 folds we have 2^40 thicknesses = 1,024 x 66.13 miles = 67,720 miles i.e. more than a quarter of the way to the moon.

So clearly 42 folds more than suffices to take us to the moon. How about the Sun?

The Sun is on average 93,000,000 miles away (let us not worry about perihelion and aphelion)

After 50 folds we have 2^50 thicknesses = 1,024 x 67,720 miles = 69,345,477 miles

So after 50 folds, we would then be most of the way to the sun. 51 folds more than suffices to get there. So how about Jupiter?

There are on average 486,587,517 miles to Jupiter. So another couple of folds should do the trick. 53 folds = 8 x 69,345,477 miles = 554,762,813 miles i.e. 53 folds more than suffices to get to Jupiter, And 56 is ample for the short hop to Pluto.

And the nearest star?

1 light year = 5.879 ×10^12 miles
4.2 light years = 24.69 ×10^12 miles

After 60 folds we have 2^60 thicknesses = 1,024 x 69,345,477 miles = 71,009,769,448 miles

After 70 folds we have 2^70 thicknesses = 1,024 x 71,009,769,448 miles = 72,714,002,890,752 miles (72 x 10^12 miles)

So clearly 69 folds gets us to Proxima Centauri and half way back again! 70 would take us to Sirius (8.6 light years away) and half way back again. Or, more interestingly, it would easily take us to Epsilon Eridani b, the nearest known extra-solar planet (10.5 light years away),

I will leave you to work out how many folds you would need to get to the nearest galaxy!

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How Many times would you need to fold a piece of paper to make it big enough to reach the moon from the earth?
I know its impossible to fold more than 7-8 times. This is a theoretical question

Answer 3

50 times. at least that's what Malcolm Gladwell, the author of "the tipping point" said.

edit:

I am wrong. here is what he said:
"I give you a large piece of paper, and I ask you to fold it over once, and then take that folded paper and fold it over again, and then again, until you have folded the original paper 50 times. How tall do you think the final stack is going to be? In answer to that question most people will fold the sheet in their mind's eye, and guess it would be as thick as a phone book, or, if they're really courageous, they'll say it would be as tall as a refrigerator. But the real answer is that the height of the stack would be approximate to the distance of the sun. And if you folded it over one more time, the stack would be as high as the distance to the sun and back. This is an example of what in mathematics is called geometric progression." (The Tipping Point, pg 11)

so i guess somewhere less than 50. i don't know for sure.

edit:
looks like the answer is 42. here, check this link to see how to figure the math:

http://www.astro.umd.edu/courses/ASTR220fl06/

you have to scroll down to the handouts section, you will see handout #2. you have to download the pdf.

Answer 4

i dont think so!!!! that cant be possible because u can only fold a peice of paper around 7 times some times 6 some times 8 but NOT enough times to reach the moon. no matter how thin the paper is u cant fold it more than 7 or 8 times.

Answer 5

it's simple mathamatics for which one has to know the following. the distance from earth to moon. the thickness of the paper. the first fold will reduce the distance by twice the thickness of the paper,next fold by 4 times, then 8 times,then 16 times... and so on until the distance is covered

Answer 6

Need to know the thickness of the paper.
Its like the penny a day doubled every day for thirty days for a total of $1 million . An at what distance do you want to use for distance to the moon since it wobbles in its orbit around the earth so the distance varies a little.
A sheet of paper 1/1000th. inch thick,torn and stacked the the stack is torn and stacked over and over again 50 times would produce a stack of paper about 23 million miles high.

Answer 7

Fold Paper 50 Times

Answer 8

42

Answer 9

The paper won't increase it's length no matter how you fold it.

Answer 10

folding paper makes it smallerrrrrrrr