For many years the Paper Folding Problem (how many times can any given size piece of paper be folded exactly in half) has thought the physical limit was 8 folds.
Jason from The Horrors of an Easily Distracted Mind reminds us that a young lady from Pomona, CA, Britney Gallivan, has solved the Paper Folding Problem mathematically. And she figured it out when she was only a Junior in high school.
Britney, in a single day, solved the problem and then broke the record by folding a piece of gold foil twelve times.
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I admit it: I’m a big numbers geek — math, stats, algorithms, etc. — you name it, I like numbers. Apparantly Jason does to, as I just realized that I also first learned about the Doomsday Algorithm from Jason’s blog.
I’m not really that into numbers and such, but I like the formulas somehow. Especially when they’re useful or when they break rules I learned ages ago.
I was told that much paper folding was impossible long ago. This Britney did not only broke the record but did many more folds of paper than anyone else. I call that a brilliant breakthrough. Some people manage to barely break a record, but to go dimension beyond takes a knack.
You know some people are saying if they can just do 13 folds. Let them shatter the record by doing 16 folds. Neat the formula tell how many time a paper of any size can be folded. The math actually works out for two cases I tried.