Boldly Folding (part 2)

Geometry Level 2

There is a stack of n n rectangular W × L W \times L papers. You can use four different kinds of folds: { u p , d o w n , l e f t , r i g h t } \{up, down, left, right\}

  • u p up grabs all the layers from the bottom and folds it to the top.
  • d o w n down grabs all the layers from the top and folds it to the bottom.
  • l e f t left grabs all the layers from the right and folds it to the left.
  • r i g h t right grabs all the layers from the left and folds it to the right.

After x x folds, how many layers exist?

Details and assumptions:

  • The papers have infinitesimal thickness.
  • All of the papers in the stack are aligned with one another.
House turtle folded by Herng Yi .
n 2 x n2^{x} x n 2 xn^{2} x 2 n \frac{x^{2}}{n} 1 , 000 , 000 1,000,000

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1 solution

Brock Brown
Jul 7, 2015

If you don't fold at all, your number of layers is n n .

If you fold once, your number of layers doubles: n 2 n2 .

If you fold twice, your number of layers doubles again: n 2 2 n \cdot 2 \cdot 2 .

If you fold three times, your number of layers doubles again: n 2 2 2 n \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 .

We can start to see a trend; The number of layers after x x folds is n 2 x \boxed{n2^{x}} .

Please explain how "all your number of layers is n."

John King - 2 years, 6 months ago

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Why isn't the number of layers after x folds is n times x?

John King - 2 years, 6 months ago

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