Eli5: Why can you only fold a paper in half seven times, no matter the size ?
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The seven times rule is not real, but it is a fairly practical limit for smaller pieces of paper. If you have a piece of paper or foil that is much thinner than usual, you could fold it more times. The same is true if you have a really gigantic piece of paper. For instance Mythbusters folded a piece of paper the size of a football field 11 times.
The limit comes from the fact that when you fold the paper, the outside layer has to be longer to wrap around the inside layer, so is under more stress than the inside layer. The more folds you make, the thicker the folded paper is and the more stress/force it takes to make the outer layers wrap around the inner layers. Eventually the force required to fold more layers is so high that you won’t be strong enough to fold it, or the paper will rip before it is able to fold.
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