<P> Britney Crystal Gallivan (born 1985) of Pomona, California, is best known for determining the maximum number of times that paper or other materials can be folded in half . </P> <P> In January 2002, while a junior in high school, Gallivan demonstrated that a single piece of toilet paper 4000 ft (1200 m) in length can be folded in half twelve times . This was contrary to the popular conception that the maximum number of times any piece of paper could be folded in half was seven . She calculated that, instead of folding in half every other direction, the least volume of paper to get 12 folds would be to fold in the same direction, using a very long sheet of paper . A special kind of $85 - per - roll toilet paper in a set of six met her length requirement . Not only did she provide the empirical proof, but she also derived an equation that yielded the width of paper or length of paper necessary to fold a piece of paper of thickness t any n number of times . </P> <P> She was a keynote speaker at the September 22, 2006, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics convention . </P>

A paper can be folded how many times