If you start off with a very big piece of paper which is also very thin – just 0.001 cm thick, how many times would you need to fold it to get to the moon?
- Fold the paper 1 time –> thickness = 0.002 cm
- Fold the paper 2 times –> thickness = 0.004 cm
- Fold the paper 3 times –> thickness = 0.008 cm
- Fold the paper 4 times –> thickness = 0.016 cm
- ….
You can see that with every subsequent fold that we make, the paper doubles in thickness.
After 10 folds –> 2 to the power of 10 = x1024. Therefore, the total thickness of the paper would be 1.024 cm!
After 25 folds –-> 2 to the power of 25 = x33,554,432. Therefore, the total thickness of the paper would be 33,554 cm, just greater than 1100 feet (we have reached the height of the Empire State building!)
- 25 folds –> 0.25 miles
- 30 folds –> 6.67 miles (height at which planes fly)
- 40 folds –> thickness is 6,832 miles!! (height of the average GPS satellite)
The distance between the Earth () and the Moon () < 250,000 miles
Therefore, by folding a piece of 0.001 cm thick paper 45 times, we get to the Moon!!
This is the power of exponential growth
