Can Folding Paper 42 Times Really Reach the Moon? | Scale Side by Side #04

Can folding paper 42 times really reach the Moon?

This is the famous paper-folding (doubling) puzzle. Inside a computer, we fold a giant 0.1 mm sheet all 42 times and compare its doubling thickness at the same scale in 3D.

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By the thickness math, 41 folds give about 220,000 km. Fold 42 doubles that to about 440,000 km, beyond the distance to the Moon. Real paper also needs enough length for its outer layer to wrap around the stack at the crease. The second half explores how large that sheet would need to be.

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Images: Earth map, NASA Earth Observatory (Blue Marble Next Generation, July 2004); Moon map, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (data: LRO LROC WAC, ASU); Moon photo, NASA (iss068e027781).

Ground: NASA HLS (Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2, NASA LP DAAC, doi:10.5067/HLS/HLSS30.002). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026. Sand ripples and grains finer than the satellite imagery are procedural illustrations.

Elevation data: Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI Tiles) / Terrain Tiles (AWS Open Data): ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under NSF awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736; Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; EU-DEM: Produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union.

3D, calculations and production: Tamelabo. Not made or endorsed by NASA, Guinness World Records or FIBA.

Key assumptions (full list and more sources on the episode page):

- An ideal fold of a square sheet, 0.1 mm thick and 2,097.152 km per side, alternating directions. Thickness = 0.1 mm × 2 to the fold count. It ignores crease paper, gaps, squashing, weight and force.

- Moon distance: 384,400 km between centers minus both mean radii, about 376,292 km between surfaces. The real center distance varies from roughly 357,000 to 407,000 km.

- Only the column’s width is enlarged for visibility; its length is calculated. The edge of space is the FAI’s 100 km; some use 80 km.