The shortest crease - May 29-June 2, 1995
Chrissie walked to the front of the room. "Everybody who wants to try this problem, grab a partner."Adam headed over to Andy's table. "I'll stand by you," Adam said to Andy, "and we can try it together."
"Okay. Almost like being back on the chain gang, but I really don't mind the problems."
Chrissie handed out sheets of paper. Adam read the problem:
You have a sheet of paper that is 6 units wide and 25 units long, placed so that the short side is facing you. Fold the lower right corner to touch the left side. Your task is to fold the paper in such a way that the length of the crease is minimized. What is the length of the crease?"Gee," said Andy. "How are we supposed to figure that out?"
Chrissie piped up. "You may not be able to find the exact answer, but you should try different things and see which fold seems to produce the shortest crease."
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