Mathematics students from a school in UK have broken a paper-folding record by completing 13 folds.
Mathematics students from a school in UK have broken a paper-folding record by completing 13 folds.
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The students from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, had been tackling this challenge for the past seven years with the help of their teacher James Tanton.
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They found that based on the thickness of a sheet of paper, a formula can be used to calculate the minimum length needed to fold it a given number of times.
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The paper roughly doubles in size when it is folded each time and the sides become more rounded that makes it harder and harder to bend.
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Wrinkles also have a significant impact and make the formula difficult to follow in practice.
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No single roll is long enough to fold thirteen times, requiring the group to attach numerous rolls of industrial toilet paper, making it 1.2 kilometres long.
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To achieve this feat, the students first arranged and taped 64 layers of paper into the physical structure of the sixth fold. They then proceeded to physically fold the stack.
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The final result was a 1.5-metre wide and 76-centimetre high wad comprising 8192 layers of paper.
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Although no official rules govern the record, the students have decided that the folds must be in one direction and the complete structure should be self-supporting.
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