How Can a Single Piece of Paper Hold Up a Heavy Book?

Imagine you have a piece of paper and you want to hold up a big book. If you just put the book on top, it will fall through. But if you fold the paper like an accordion, all the way down, it becomes very strong! It’s like stacking many pieces of paper together. When you fold it, each layer helps carry the weight, and that makes the whole thing super strong.

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Examples

  1. A single sheet of paper folded three times can support a small book.
  2. Folding paper like an accordion turns one piece into many layers that work together.
  3. You can balance your entire backpack on top of a couple of folded paper sheets.

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