Is it possible to double a sheet of paper 7 times in a row without using a hydraulic compressor?

Have you ever tried to double a sheet of paper and thought it was too easy? But calm down, if it's double the piece of paper 7 times in a row, you'll need a hydraulic compressor.

That's what was done in a video on Youtube Hydraulic Press Channel. An A3-size sheet of paper has been continuously doubled to 6 times by hydraulic compressor. At the 7th time, the paper exploded and turned into a broken piece like hard plastic. It is hard to imagine a piece of paper could explode like that, if you don't see it for yourself.

Fold a sheet of paper 7 times, you will need a hydraulic compressor.

The question is why is doubling such a piece of paper beyond our imagination?

Just try it, the limit to doubling a normal piece of paper is only 8 times. If this is possible 23 times, the sheet is 1 km thick. And can you believe it, if the number is 42, you will have a ladder connecting the Earth to the Moon.

All come from a concept in mathematics called exponential . Because every time you fold a sheet of paper, you increase its thickness twice. Try to select a sheet of paper with a thickness of 1 part 10 mm. The first time you reach the thickness of 0.2 mm. The third time it's as thick as a nail.

However, things start to rise quickly. For the 7th time, you had a piece of paper 128 times thicker, with a laptop. The 12th time, it was as tall as a chair. The 17th time, as tall as a 2-storey building.

Doubling a piece of paper 42 times in a row, its thickness reached the Moon.

How paper folding can take you to the Moon.

And after that, each time the thickness was doubled. Not until the 42nd fold, do you have an object that connects the Earth to the Moon. For the 43rd time, you can break it and reconnect from the Moon to Earth. It can be said that math is amazing.

Going back to the experiment, there's one more interesting thing: Why does the paper explode?

In fact, each time the thickness doubled, the paper required an increased pressure accordingly to squeeze their edges. By the eighth fold, the magnitude of the pressure was large enough to break the fold. The fold collapses just like you break a piece of plastic, it makes a noise.

Try to fold a large sheet of paper with a football field.

In an earlier experiment, another group tried to fold a giant sheet of paper 11 times, with the help of a roller. There is no explosion created in this case. Therefore, the paper's explosion is responsible for the force exerted by the hydraulic compressor to break the hard fold. Not that you fold the paper 7 times to create a small cannon.