Folding paper to the Moon
A sheet of paper is a tenth of a millimetre thick. Fold it in half and it doubles.
Every fold doubles the thickness. How many folds until the stack reaches the Moon?
2505folds
10 folds5000 folds
Where these numbers come from
Mount Everest is 8 848.86 m high.
Nepal and China agree on Mount Everest's height — Survey Department of Nepal / BBC News(checked 2026-09-16)The Kármán line, the usual boundary of space, is 100 km above sea level.
100 km altitude boundary for astronautics — Fédération Aéronautique Internationale(checked 2026-09-16)The Moon's average distance from Earth is about 384 400 km.
Moon: By the numbers — NASA Science(checked 2026-09-16)The Sun is about 149 600 000 km from Earth.
Sun: By the numbers — NASA Science(checked 2026-09-16)