Paper Folding: Origami, Flexagon, Paper Plane, Paper Football, Hotel Toilet-Paper Folding, Mathematics of Paper Folding, Chinese Pape

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Origami, Flexagon, Paper Plane, Paper Football, Hotel Toilet-Paper Folding, Mathematics of Paper Folding, Chinese Paper Folding, Britney Gallivan, Napkin Folding Problem, Rigid Origami, Paper Fortune Teller, Paper Folding, Iris Folding, Teabag Folding, Paper Popper, Humiaki Huzita, Fpg-9, Kawasaki's Theorem. Excerpt: Britney Gallivan (born 1985) of Pomona, California is best known for determining the maximum number of times which paper or other finite thickness materials can be folded. She was first to discover the reason folding in half has limits, derive the limits mathematically and then achieve her goal of folding paper in half 4 more times than thought possible. Her successes have led to media popularization of mathematics.Biography In January 2002, while a junior in high school, Gallivan demonstrated that a single piece of toilet paper, 4000 ft (1200 m) in length, can be folded in half twelve times. This was contrary to the popular conception that the number of times any piece of paper could only be folded in half was limited to eight times. She folded a very long sheet of toilet paper in half 12 times. She calculated that instead of folding in half every other direction the least volume of paper to get 12 folds would be to fold in the same direction, using a very long sheet of paper. A special kind of $85 toilet paper met her length requirement. Not only did she provide the empirical proof, but she also derived an equation that yielded the width of paper or length of paper necessary to fold a piece of paper of thickness t any n number of times.Gallivan's story was mentioned in the episode Identity Crisis of Numb3rs, she was a consultant and mentioned on the CBS 2005 episode of MythBusters on the Discovery Channel in 2007, and in episode 3 of QI ' s "F" series. She was ...