<P> In January 2002 , while a junior in high school , Gallivan demonstrated that a single piece of toilet paper 4000 ft ( 1200 m ) in length can be folded in half twelve times . This was contrary to the popular conception that the maximum number of times any piece of paper could be folded in half was seven . She calculated that , instead of folding in half every other direction , the least volume of paper to get 12 folds would be to fold in the same direction , using a very long sheet of paper . A special kind of $85 - per - roll toilet paper in a set of six met her length requirement . Not only did she provide the empirical proof , but she also derived an equation that yielded the width of paper or length of paper necessary to fold a piece of paper of thickness t any n number of times . </P>
<P> In January 2002 , while a junior in high school , Gallivan demonstrated that a single piece of toilet paper 4000 ft ( 1200 m ) in length can be folded in half twelve times . This was contrary to the popular conception that the maximum number of times any piece of paper could be folded in half was seven . She calculated that , instead of folding in half every other direction , the least volume of paper to get 12 folds would be to fold in the same direction , using a very long sheet of paper . A special kind of $85 - per - roll toilet paper in a set of six met her length requirement . Not only did she provide the empirical proof , but she also derived an equation that yielded the width of paper or length of paper necessary to fold a piece of paper of thickness t any n number of times . </P>
a paper can be folded how many times
a paper can be folded how many times
twelve
twelve