Question

a standard piece of paper is 0.0038 in. thick. How many times would you have to fold it in half for the piece of paper to be thicker than one mile?

Answer 1

Each time you fold the piece of paper, you double its thickness. So we can write an equation to represent the thickness of the paper: 
t=thickness
f=# of folds

t=0.0038(2)^f

Let's solve for f.
(2)^f = (t/0.0032)
f= log(base 2) of (t/0.0032)

The paper needs to be thicker than one mile- or, converted into inches, thicker than 63360 inches.

So, f = log(base 2) of (63360)/(0.0032)
f = 24.24

The paper must be thicker than one mile, and we can't have a friction for our answer, so we round up to the next greatest integer. The answer is 25 times.

Hope this helps!!