A popular belief holds that it is impossible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than 7 times, folding in any direction, as the challenge had existed for many years and had never been solved. This belief was debunked by then high school student Britney Gallivan who successfully folded a piece of paper 12 times. More importantly she developed the mathematical and physical explanations for the actual folding limits of incompressible materials when folding in one or two directions. After the mathematics were developed she demonstrated folding in half 12 times both by folding paper in a single direction and by folding gold foil while rotating the folding 90 degrees after each fold.
The television series MythBusters “busted the myth” of the 7 fold limit by folding taped-together sheets the size of a football field in half and turning 90 degrees each time, for a total of 11 folds. The first eight folds were completed by hand, while the rest were completed using both steam rollers and fork lifts. This was accomplished by using not a single piece of paper but 17 large rolls of paper taped together to form a very large yet relatively thin “sheet.”
Folding a piece of paper in half 100 times, if it were possible, would produce a stack of paper approximately 8×1022 miles in height.
For more wild facts about paper folding, go to wikipedia.org.
The Stanley Cup (French: La Coupe Stanley) is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffschampion. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley’s Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as Lord Stanley’s Mug. The Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the celebratory drinking ofchampagne out of the cup by the winning team. Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is not made each year; Cup winners keep it until a new champion is crowned. It is unusual among trophies, in that it has the names of all of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved on its chalice. The original bowl was made of silver and has a dimension of 18.5 centimeters (7.28 inches) in height and 29 centimeters (11.42 inches) in diameter. The current Stanley Cup, topped with a copy of the original bowl, is made of silver and nickel alloy. Today, it has a height of 89.54 centimeters (35.25 inches) and weighs 15.5 kilograms (34.5 lb / 2 st 6½ lb)
Given all the growth that occurs in the first year of life, new parents may be surprised when their child doesn’t continue to grow through the roof. But no child continues the rate of growth experienced during infancy. After age 1, a baby’s growth in length slows considerably, and by 2 years, growth in height usually continues at a fairly steady rate of approximately 2½ inches (6 centimeters) per year until adolescence.
No child grows at a perfectly steady rate throughout this period of childhood, however. Weeks or months of slightly slower growth alternate with mini “growth spurts” in normal children. Kids actually tend to grow a bit faster in the spring than during other times of the year.
For more wild facts about growth, go to kidshealth.org.
We are taller in the morning than in the evening because during normal activities during the day the cartilage in our knees and other areas slowly compress, but when you go to sleep and rest the cartilage goes back to normal. On average we are about 1cm taller the morning than in the evening.
The other component to this phenomenon is that the joint capsules loose some of their synovial fluid and the connective tissues around the joints tend to become compressed throughout the day from activity and trying to counter the affects of gravity.
Also, the discs of the spine do the same thing. During the night, they resorb more fluid making them thicker and the person taller. While walking or being upright during the day, they slowly lose some of this fluid and become thinner.
For more wild facts about height, go to wiki.answers.com.
