A fun math game can be played using plain paper. Sounds incredible. So we will prove with the help of mathematics. The work is also very easy. Take a paper. Fold it four times. Then four more times. Eight times in total. If asked to fold the paper eight more times? Thinking, this is such a difficult task? You can do it in 2 minutes. But if you can actually do it with initiative, then a world record will be created. You will own that record. You can try. However, it may be wise to read the entire text before attempting.

the moon

Take an A4 size paper. Fold it in the middle. Then the paper is twice as thick as before. Now fold the paper once more. So it is now four times thicker than A4 paper. In this you have folded only 2 times. If folded once more, it will be 8 times thicker. Fold like this as many times as possible. Probably not more than 8 times you can fold.

The first fold will be 2 times thicker than the beginning, then 4 times, 8 times, 16 times, 32 times, 64 times. That is, if you fold it 6 times, it will be 64 times thicker than before. If you fold it 7 times, it will be 128 times thicker. About the size of a notebook. Now think, can you fold 16 times? If you are still in the mood, let me give you a little information. Britney Gallivan has set a world record for folding a paper maximum 12 times so far.

But don't despair just yet. One folds 12 times, you can fold 13 times if you try. So keep your spirits up. If you could try and fold the paper 23 times, the paper would be so thick that it would be about 1 kilometer high. It must be surprising to think now. But don't lose all hope just yet. Because, to surprise you even more, I will now take the help of a little math.

Generally, a bundle of 500 pages of A4 size paper is 5 cm high. In that case the height of a paper will be 0.01 cm or 0.1 millimeter. Now I will try to figure out how thick the paper will be if folded 27 times.

0.1 mm × 2 × 2 × 2 × …(27 times, means 27 hours 2),

That is, 27 should be multiplied by 0.1 millimeter. Then you will get the product of 13421772.8 millimeters. Expressing in kilometers will be 13.42177 kilometers. This height is higher than Mount Everest. Meaning, if you can fold a piece of paper 27 times, it will be taller than Mount Everest.

If can fold 30 times? Let's do the math. 0.1 mm × 2 30 = 107374182.4 millimeters or 107.4 kilometers. If you can fold it 42 times instead of 30 times, then the height of the paper will be so high that it will be equal to the distance of the Earth from the Moon. That is, if you can fold a paper 42 times, you can go directly from the earth to the moon. And if you fold it 50 times, it will be equal to 4/3 of the distance between the earth and the sun. It's hard to believe though. But there is math to be believed. Let's take the help of mathematics for now.

0.1 mm × 2 × 2 × 2 × …(50 times means 50 hours 2),

The product will be 112.589990 × 10 6 km. Simply put, 112.5 million kilometers or 11.25 crore kilometers. The distance from the earth to the sun is 14.96 million kilometers. If you can fold it one more time, means 51 times, then you will reach the sun. Burn!

Now let's see at a glance how thick the paper will be if you fold it many times.

Number of folds As many times as possible Thickness (km)
১ ২ ০
২ ৪ ০
৩ ৮ ০.০০০০০১
৪ ১৬ ০.০০০০০২
৫ ৩২ ০.০০০০০৩
৬ ৬৪ ০.০০০০০৬
৭ ১২৮ ০.০০০০১৩
৮ ২৫৬ ০.০০০০২৬
৯ ৫১২ ০.০০০০৫১
১০ ১,০২৪ ০.০০০১
১১ ২,০৪৮ ০.০০০২
১২ ৪,০৯৬ ০.০০০৪
১৩ ৮,১৯২ ০.০০০৮
১৪ ১৬,৩৮৪ ০.০০১৬
১৫ ৩২,৭৬৮ ০.০০৩৩
১৬ ৬৫,৫৩৬ ০.০০৬৬
১৭ ১৩১,০৭২ ০.০১৩১
১৮ ২৬২,১৪৪ ০.০২৬২
১৯ ৫২৪,২৮৮ ০.০৫২৪
২০ ১,০৪৮,৫৭৬ ০.১০৪৯
… ….. ……
৩০ ১,০৭৩,৭৪১,৮২৪ ১০৭.৪
৩৫ ৩৪,৩৫৯,৭৩৮,৩৬৮ ৩,৪০০
৪০ ১,০৯৯,৫১১,৬২৭,৭৭৬ ১০৯,৯০০
৪৫ ৩৫,১৮৪,৩৭২,০৮৮,৮৩২ ৩,৫০০,০০০
৫০ ১,১২৫,৮৯৯,৯০৬,৮৪২,৬২৪ ১১২,৫০০,০০০
Let's talk about Brittany Gallivan. As the paper folding record is still in his possession. He took a piece of paper equal to about 4,000 feet (about 1.2 kilometers). It was actually toilet paper. He could fold the paper maximum 12 times. Britney created a formula to account for this. The formula is a bit complicated.

L = π.t/6 (2 n + 4) (2 n – 1)

Here t is the volume of the thing you will fold. L means the length of the thing to be folded and n means how many times to fold it. This formula is called paper folding theory.

Before concluding let me give a real example. Suppose you went for a job interview. Survived in the job. But the job is only for 7 weeks. You are given two conditions from the company. Either of these two conditions you have to get paid.

Condition 1: On the first day of employment you will get a salary of Rs. Second day you will get Tk 200, third day Tk 300… and so on till the last day. Every day will increase by 100 rupees than the previous day.

Condition 2: On the first day of employment you will get 1 paisa, on the second day twice as much—2 paisa, on the third day 4 paisa, after that 8 paisa…and so on. You will get double money every day.

Now you accept any conditions to accept the money? The first condition, or the second? If you have a basic understanding of mathematics, you should accept the second condition. Because the amount of profit is very high. Even if there is a difference in money on the first day, all calculations will change on the last day. After at least 7 days you will start to realize that second condition is more profitable than first condition. Let's see this also with the help of a table.

week Condition 1 Condition 2
1st week 2,800 Tk 1.27 Rs
2nd week 7,700 Tk 163.83 Tk
3rd week 12,600 Tk 20,971.51 Tk
4th week 17,500 Tk 2,684,354.55 Tk
5th week 22,400 Tk 343,597,383.67 Tk
6th week 27,300 Tk 43,980,465,111.03 Tk
7th week 32,200 Tk 5,629,499,534,213.11 Tk
Total Rs 122,500 Tk 5,673,826,302,198.97 Tk
The calculation is very simple. If you start with 100 taka on the first day, you will get 2 thousand 800 taka in 7 days. On the other hand, if you accept the second condition, you will get only 1 taka 27 paisa. But after 7 weeks if you accept the first condition you will get 1 lakh 22 thousand 500 taka. Accept the second condition and you will become a billionaire. The amount of money will be so much that it will be difficult to express it in crores. Understand the magic of mathematics!