why is it hard/impossible to fold paper 7 times or more?
In: Physics
From a strictly mechanics point of view:
I am going to call the folded up piece of paper an “assembly” so it does not get confused with an unfolded piece of paper.
When you fold a piece of paper the over all thickness of the assembly is now two sheets of paper. When you fold it again its over all thickness is 4 sheets of paper. When you fold it again the assembly is now 8 sheets thick. This gets important at the fold/crease.
So when you fold the paper, the paper at the crease has to stretch all the way around the crease. On the first fold, the extra distance that has to be covered is zero, on the second fold the extra distance that has to be covered is the thickness of 2 sheets of paper, on the third fold you now have to cover an extra distance of 4 sheets of paper, and so on and so forth.
So paper that previously only had to cover a distance of 1 sheet of paper now have to be stretched to 3, 5, 9 or more sheets of paper so you can complete the fold. And each time this gets more and more difficult.
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