Wheat and Chessboard Story

Transcript

Wheat and Chessboard StoryA long time ago, in a kingdom far away, a genius inventor created the game of chess. The king loved it so much he said: “Name your reward, anything you want!” The inventor, with the smugness of someone who just checkmated a royal, said: “Oh, just put 1 grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard… then double it for each square after that. That’s it.” The king thought: “Wow, what a humble guy. Could’ve asked for gold, castles, my Netflix password… but he just wants wheat? Pfft! So they started placing the grains: Square 1: 1 grain. Square 2: 2 grains. Square 3: 4 grains. Square 10: 1,024 grains — okay, still fine, I’ll just raid the kitchen. Square 20: A million grains — hmm, might need to borrow from the neighbours. Square 30: A billion grains — okay, this is getting awkward. By the time they got halfway (Square 32), the total was more wheat than the kingdom had ever seen. By Square 64, the number was so huge they’d need all the wheat on Earth… for centuries… plus some from other planets. The king finally realised: “Oh no. I’ve been out-chessed in economics.” Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of doubling… or a nerd with a math problem. The king finally realised: “Oh no. I’ve been out-chessed in economics.” Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of doubling… or a nerd with a math problem.