Did you know that you can step through a sheet of paper using just a pair of scissors to help? Does this sound impossible? Well, this is where math and magic come together! Watch the video and I’ll explain.
NOTE: pause the video after the introduction – at about 0:30 mark on the video timer – so that you don’t learn the answer before you’ve had a chance to think about the solution.
Download Student Worksheet & Exercises
Were you able to come up with a solution that works? Or maybe my solution makes a lot of sense and you’re able to see in your mind how it works. If so, you’re probably really good with shapes!
Exercises
Use the diagram below to answer questions 1 to 6
- How many folds are made according to the following diagrams?
- What fraction of the paper is visible after the first fold?
- What fraction of the paper is visible after the fourth fold?
- What fraction of the paper is visible after the second fold?
- How many fold lines does A have?
- How many fold lines does B have?
- In the second to last process, why don’t we want to cut the first and the last folds?
- If the paper shown in the figure to the right was to be cut end to end along the folds, how many smaller pieces of paper would result?
- If the paper shown in the figure below was to be cut end to end along the folds then cut by the scissors as shown below, how many smaller pieces of paper would result?
