Exponential growth: How folding paper can get you to the Moon

1 fold is 0.02 mm
2 folds is 0.04 mm
3 folds is 0.08 mm
4 folds is 0.16 mm
5 folds is 0.32 mm
6 folds is 0.64 mm
7 folds is 1.28 mm
8 folds is 2.56 mm
9 folds is 5.12 mm
10 folds is 1.024 cm
11 folds is 2.048 cm
12 folds is 4.096 cm
13 folds is 8.192 cm
14 folds is 16.384 cm
15 folds is 32.768 cm
16 folds is 65.536 cm
17 folds is 1.31072 m
18 folds is 2.62144 m
19 folds is 5.24288 m
20 folds is 10.48576 m
21 folds is 20.97152 m
22 folds is 41.94304 m
23 folds is 83.88608 m
24 folds is 167.77216 m
25 folds is 335.54432 m
26 folds is 671.08864 m
27 folds is 1.34217728 km
28 folds is 2.68435456 km
29 folds is 5.36870912 km
30 folds is 10.73741824 km
31 folds is 21.47483648 km
32 folds is 42.94967296 km
33 folds is 85.89934592 km
34 folds is 171.79869184 km
35 folds is 343.59738368 km

My fingers hurt

This is a silly test 😂😂

FYI: This exact video was made a year before I was born.

And how are you going to fold the paper 45 times?

With a hydraulic press?

Now find a paper big enough to not break apart on a molecular level after than many foldd

Who’s here in 2025

Folding news: While folding paper, Adrián Paenza saw a moon larger than earth in just 45 folds!!?!?

100 folds will 😮

I tried this method to get to the moon. It doesn't work. Started with a standard post-it, folded it 45 times. I climbed to the top, only to find that the moon is not geostationary, so I couldn't hop over and had to return to earth. Waste of time.

Now be very careful; you don't want a plane striking this paper tower.

So we are not talking about it gets skinner?

I learnt this from Virginia Braithwaite. Except she used a cigarette paper and then got dismissed from university.

Non sense theory

Play 2048 game

Isn't it that we can't fold a paper mre than 7 times

Let’s not forget the surface area of the paper also shrinks exponentially , which means after a couple of folds the paper surface area will be microscipic. Assuming the surface of area of an atom is 10^-18 the maximum number of folds before the surface area becomes comparable to the size of an atom is approximately 56 folds. Beyond that, it would be physically impossible to fold the paper further. 

This is the best explanation of “Arifmetic progrestion”🤯

It'd also have the width then of 400 nanometers - an unfathomably small size. It would be like a beam of light.

It's like "If you start a month with Rs.1 and manage to double it every day, you'll become a billionaire by the end of the month!" (31 days)

It's area in total will get lesser but the length will be higher. In 40 holds, an atom will be split and you will have a nuke.

I plan to go to the moon using paper.
ありがとうね

This will end a day long debate with my father :3

The area would also decrease as the height increases
Soon the paper will be tall but not even visible like in the nanometers in terms of width

I like that video. But if we talk about math or science we don't talk miles or feet or miles. We talk millimeters, square meters, meters.

thank you

not gonna lie, you should not mix imperial with metric, cm to ft is extremely hard to process

Fun fact: 1.024 cm = 1 m!

It actually takes 42 folds to get to the moon! Not 45.

Bull 💩

If 45 times folded paper is 2m2 when it's folded and reach to the moon, you'd need paper size on half of Indian ocean 35million km2 to beging folding...
That's bigger than North America continent...

So I guess one could say, "I love you 46 folds in half of a paper," it would be the same as saying, "I love you to the moon and back."

lol I’m dead

What if we did this with a huge sheet of paper about 1 square mile? Would it be possible to reach the moon? It sounds so surreal I kinda wanna try it out-

ITS FAKE

Okay so just get 90 sheets of paper and fold them each once see it doesn't work cuz this video is propaganda.

I tested this theory and your only off by just over 3 billion

Actual distance=3844030000cm
Paper folded 45 times=35184372088.832

practically improbable

You do realise that 4,000th of a CM is SMALLER than 2,000th of a CM? So that is wrong for starters when the paper gets thicker

Well also, if my grandmother had wheels, she would've been a bike.

long intro

Tq for those videos 🎉🎉❤❤

Can someone explain why this isn't true?

I wanted to confirm that this is a joke???🤔🤔🙄🙄🤣🤣

The same equation happens in reverse for the area however. A 625cm A4 paper would have an area of 1 picometer when folded 40 times. That’s 1000000 times smaller than a nerve cell - or the same size as an electron.