folding paper with a hydraulic press

[miyakoji]

Cool.  Watch for strong language at 2:15

 

[cteno4]

Surprised the dude had 10 fingertips! Using fingers near a hydrolic press!

 

Myth busters got 11 folds but used a HUGE piece of paper

 

[kvp]

It's pretty easy math, every fold doubles the number of layers, so 7 times is 2^7=128 layers. The size of the starting sheet matters as well as the thickness and stretchiness becase folding introduces stress on the outer edge of each fold. What the hydraulic press did was to break the outer edge, then hammer down on the rest due to the pressure in the cylinder. Folding with a mechanically cranked press would have just broken the outer edge and stopped there.