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You may notice the first half of these instructions are similar to the instructions for a working nuclear fusion device. After the first few dozen steps, be sure to press down firmly and fold quickly to overcome fusion pressure.

https://explainxkcd.com/3033/

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[-] AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

The maximum number of times a piece of paper has ever been folded in half is 11, thanks to my boys Adam and Jamie. https://partsolutions.com/the-law-of-seven-is-it-impossible-to-fold-paper-in-half-more-than-7-times/

[-] zout@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

There was a girl who folded a piece of paper in half 12 times in 2002... Link

[-] Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 weeks ago

I think she didn't fold it in half then half. Buy I'm not sure.

[-] zout@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

She did, after deriving the formula for the needed paper size. Also, the Mythbusters seemed to have used a steamroller, so I wonder if it was still a folded piece of paper, or more a block of paper similar to how damascus steel is made.

[-] Courantdair@jlai.lu 3 points 3 weeks ago

Fun fact: if you do that 42 times, the piece of paper will be so thick it will reach the moon

[-] Neon@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

1mm * 2^42 = 4'398'046.511104 km

Distance to moon: 405'500km

I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I shall immediately undo my downvote.

[-] Poach@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

What kind of upside down ass country/region uses apostrophes for thousands separator?

[-] HereIAm@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Sweden does. As we use a comma (,) to separate units from decimals instead of a dot. It's annoying. Some programs like Excel freaks, and wolfram alpha thinks you're using coordinates.

[-] PetteriSkaffari@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

That would most probably be Switzerland. Perhaps a referendum can be set up to change that?

[-] Neon@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Actully no. A referemdum can only be taken against a law by the Government, meaning to stop a change and Not to cause one.

There is the initiative, but it can only change the constitution, not laws itself.

[-] Neon@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Very sorry for you you aren't able to handle swiss supremacy ๐Ÿ˜ž๐Ÿ˜ž๐Ÿ˜ž

I'll pray for you ๐Ÿ˜ž๐Ÿ˜ž๐Ÿ˜ž

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago
[-] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

1mm thick is no longer in the realm if paper but into some form of heavy cardboard. That said, even at .05mm, its still a pretty think wad when folded up.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago

At some point the thickness of the stack will exceed both the width and breadth of the "faces" of the paper, at which point you seriously have to consider in which dimension the folds should continue.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I love this fact so much, because it always blows your mind.

[-] portuga@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

A little known fact: if you were able to fold a paper sheet in half 24 times, it would become wider than the whole known universe, and thicker than your momโ€™s ass

[-] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Huh, I've always thought that a black hole required a lot of mass, not just a lot of density. Apparently not true?

[-] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago

They can be any mass, it's density that matters. The smaller ones will not do much damage before they evaporate.

[-] sheepy@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

Well, a black hole with the mass of an A4 page is gonna evaporate almost instantly, turning all of that mass into energy. Those 5 grams will give you about a 100 kT explosion.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago

That gives me an idea for a sci-fi weapon. It squeezes a few grams of stuff into an unstable black hole, which then releases all of the energy in a massive explosion.

If there was a compression ray, it could cause a few pico grams of matter to form a black hole on the surface of the target. If you pulse it very quickly, you get the appearance of a continuous cutting beam. Obviously, those explosions would be very loud and they would emit lots of radiation, so maybe it could be a tank mounted weapon.

[-] gregor@gregtech.eu 0 points 3 weeks ago

That's...... a lot of energy from so little mass

[-] sheepy@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

AFAIR it follows E = mc^2, so even 5 grams will give you quite a boom.

[-] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

~~I think that might be an underestimate. Mass and energy should be conserved, so if the entire black hole evaporates the total energy output should be E = mc^2^. An A4 page has a mass of 6.25g. c is the speed of light, 299,792,458m/s.~~

~~0.00625kg * (299,792,458m/s)^2^ = 561,721,986,710,511.025J~~

~~The explosion of 1 metric ton (1000kg) of TNT is considered to be equivalent to 4,184 Joules. So 100KT = 418,400,000J. That's not close at all, we're gonna need more TNT:~~

~~561,721,986,710,511.025J / 4,184J/ton of TNT = ~134,254,776,938 tons of TNT.~~

~~Rounding off to significant figures, we're looking at 134 gigatons of TNT. For comparison, the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested, had a yield of 50-58 megatons. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 Tsar Bombas!~~

~~Maybe this paper folding experiment should be performed away from anything that might be damaged by the explosion. Like, uh, inhabited continents.~~

As pointed out below, I biffed the joules-per-ton-of-TNT thing, sorry!

[-] reattach@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I think your conversion is off. There's 4,184 joules per gram of TNT, not per ton (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent). Your calculation is off by six orders of magnitude. The first poster's calculation is correct.

[-] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

Oh damn I think I read this:

The ton of TNT is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie),[1] which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of TNT.

And immediately brain farted "gigajoule" to "kilojoule." Thanks!

[-] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago
[-] kbal@fedia.io 1 points 3 weeks ago

Through Hawking Radiation. I believe that idea is still current.

[-] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 weeks ago

Hawinking radiation does a lot more damage the smaller a black hole gets

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The DoD: So you're telling us we should research a black hole bomb?

this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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