Students wrap up paper-folding record

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 6 (UPI) -- Students at a Massachusetts prep school claim to have broken a world record by folding a 13,000-foot length of toilet paper in half 13 times.

The 15 students from St. Mark's School in Southborough executed the feat Sunday in the so-called Infinite Corridor, an 825-foot hallway that connects many of the main buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The 4-hour operation broke the record of 12 folds set in 2002.

"It was hard, backbreaking work," math teacher James Tanton told The Boston Globe. "It's like Mount Everest. Of course we had to try."

Tanton has been organizing attempts to break the record for five years. This year, he got MIT's origami club, OrigaMIT, to gain him the use of the corridor, where they would be free of wind interference.

While the Guinness Book of Records does not keep track of paper folding, Tanton believes his class deserves a Wikipedia page at least.

He said the class will try again next year with 24,000 feet of paper.