Thursday, June 23, 2005

Not Porn. Better.

Nerdy goodness instead!!!

Girl Folds Paper in Half 12 Times!
The task was commonalty known to be impossible. Over the years the problem has been discussed by many people, including mathematicians and has been demonstrated to be impossible on TV.

For extra credit in a math class Britney was given the challenge to fold anything in half 12 times. After extensive experimentation, she folded a sheet of gold foil 12 times, breaking the record. This was using alternate directions of folding. But, the challenge was then redefined to fold a piece of paper. She studied the problem and was the first person to realize the basic cause for the limits. She then derived the folding limit equation for any given dimension. Limiting equations were derived for the case of folding in alternate directions and for the case of folding in a single direction using a long strip of paper. The merits of both folding approaches are discussed, but for high numbers of folds, single direction folding requires less paper.

The exact limit for single direction folding case was derived. It is based on the accumulative limiting effects induced by each and every fold in the folding process. Considering the intricacy of the problem the equation has a relatively simple form.
Anybody who's interested in the actual math will have to follow the link above (but I didn't really have to say that since Z is the only one who cares and he's already there).

(Link courtesy of my Philolexian colleague, Mr. Grr.)

3 Comments:

At 6/23/2005 4:21 PM, Blogger Michael said...

This was entertaining enough to Google so here are two corollary links for those who care (i.e. Z)

First, Ms. Gallivan has the Wolfram seal of approval. No small feat.

This one has more details about the actual world record fold, accomplished at a california shopping mall by Ms. Gallivan and her parents. Apparently the original 12 fold was accomplished on a sheet of gold foil millionths of an inch thick. Ms. Gallivan's math teacher deemed this cheating (in the movie he can be played by Wallace Shawn or Ben Stein) and demanded that she fold paper 12 times. The paper she used to break the record was a special roll of toilet paper the width of a standard sheet of apper...and 4000 feet long. Folding it took 7 hours.

 
At 6/23/2005 5:02 PM, Blogger ... said...

amazingly boring but interesting at the same time!

 
At 6/30/2005 1:46 PM, Blogger Jason said...

When I look at the title of this post, and then the picture...all I can think of is a pornstar named Sunrise Adams. I can't post a link 'cause I'm at work, but Google her at some point and let me know if you see the resemblance...

 

Post a Comment

<< Home