Thread: Paper tearing problem

I offer a problem to your consideration: how to tear a rectangular sheet of paper in as great a number of as small as possible pieces, with the least amount of effort.

There's a paradox in this.
The smallest pieces (atoms) would retain no properties of paper and would no longer be concidered "paper"

burn it with a lighter... whats the answer?

I was looking for a practical approach. Burning wouldn't be considered. I was rather thinking of the relationship between the area of the pieces and their number - thus the difficulty with which they can be torn, as well as how long it would take. Therefore a limit on the size of pieces can be set at some point, for instance, when the area off a piece is smaller than the surface area of the tip of the finger.