He Lied, He Lied!

When we were kids, Mr Wizard told us that it is impossible to fold a piece of paper in half more than 8 times. A high schooler proved him wrong:

For extra credit in a math class Britney was given the challenge to fold anything in half 12 times. After extensive experimentation, she folded a sheet of gold foil 12 times, breaking the record. This was using alternate directions of folding. But, the challenge was then redefined to fold a piece of paper. She studied the problem and was the first person to realize the basic cause for the limits. She then derived the folding limit equation for any given dimension.

That's right, Don Herbert, not only did little Little Britney Gallivan prove you wrong for extra credit in high school math, she came up with lots of fancy calculusy-looking equations, too. She's also better looking. (via BoingBoing)