The Math Book

[dutchboy]

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/math-book.html

Has anyone read this book? The author was on the Coast to Coast radio program overnight. It is a collection of 250 math discovies in history.

One of the items is called the bedsheet theory. Question is how many times would you have to fold it for it to be thick enough to reach from earth to the moon? It is based on what happens when you fold a sheet of paper and it gets thicker and harder to fold the more times you do it.

The smart people figured out that in theory the bedsheet would only need to be folded 40 times to be thick enough to reach the moon.

It was an interesting conversation.

[dav4463]

I just folded my bedsheet 40 times and it just barely reached the ceiling.

[cj's dad]

I just folded my bedsheet 40 times and it just barely reached the ceiling.

I assume that the larger the bedsheet, the fewer the folds ?

[DJofSD]

I heard part of the C-to-C segment and intend to buy the book. While Ian Punnett is a very intelligent person, I think some of the discussion along the way could have been better.

[cj's dad]

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/math-book.html

Has anyone read this book? The author was on the Coast to Coast radio program overnight. It is a collection of 250 math discovies in history.

One of the items is called the bedsheet theory. Question is how many times would you have to fold it for it to be thick enough to reach from earth to the moon? It is based on what happens when you fold a sheet of paper and it gets thicker and harder to fold the more times you do it.

The smart people figured out that in theory the bedsheet would only need to be folded 40 times to be thick enough to reach the moon.

It was an interesting conversation.

Similar to the depositing $1 in the bank on day #1 and doubling the balance each day. How many days to become a millionaire?

[toetoe]

Eight times constitute the limit for folding anything, right ?

[DJofSD]

7 or 8 -- I can't remember which.

[BillW]

kRAEBbotuIE

[dutchboy]

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Folding.html

12 times is the record for anything folded. If you read the paragraph above her picture they give the formula for the height of a single sheet of paper if it was possible to fold it 50 times. Interesting thing is that if you fold the paper one more time after 50 the stack would be greater than the distance from earth to the sun.