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I'm note sure if this is mathematical, however I know that there's an area of maths about folding. And regardless, this seems like an interesting question that I have no idea how to solve.

I am designing a 5 day paper timetable for university that I will keep in my pocket so I know where and when my classes are. My current timetable is a table with days as columns, hours as rows and cells being classes. However when I came to fold this I found that it was awkward. In order to fold it small enough to fit in my pocket I needed to fold it many times, which in turn meant that to view some parts of the time table I needed to unfold it many times.

How can I fold a timetable so that to view any part requires the least amount of unfolding?

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    I think it's reasonable to minimize the _expected_ number of unfoldings necessary to view any cell (possibly weighted by how often you think you need to view each cell). We still need more information along the lines of how many rows, how many columns, what kinds of folds are allowed...2011-02-17

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If you can make the overall form a horizontal strip that only needs to be folded vertically, then accordion folding (score at equal intervals, fold starting at one end, alternately forward and backward) will allow you to see any panel with a single unfolding.