Fold a Paper in Half More Than 8 Times

Everyone knows that it's impossible to fold a paper in half more than 8 times using any size paper.

That is until Britney Gallivan proved them wrong. She folded it 12 times for extra credit in a junior high school math class, no less.

Way to go, Britney!

Link

Britney derived folding limits in December of 2001 and folded paper in half 12 times in January of 2002, while a junior in High School. She now attends U. C. Berkeley

Can you say old???
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Big deal. This may be the dumbest thing I've seen in a while. That paper must be about forty miles long; of course you can fold it 12 times. The old saying that you can't fold paper more than 8 times was referring to a sheet (i.e. 8.5" x 11") of paper, in which case you simply run out of material.
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Actually the original challenge specifically states: any length or shape of paper. The only restriction is to fold it in half.

What Britney did was unique: she realized this is a problem of limits (the thickness of paper works against you) and worked out a mathematical formula that minimizes this effect.
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