It’s an old story from the middle east (maybe part of the a thousand and one nights story?), I think, about a king who granted a favor to someone, only requiring that it be small. The philosopher/farmer/common-man hero had the humble request of filling a chess board with grains of rice, starting with one on the first tile, but doubling each time. Some variants, you’ll hear it as a gold coin. Anyone who does the math in their head, that’s 2^63 on the last tile, plus all the others (so 2^64-1), which is more grains of rice than probably exist, maybe more than ever have existed (1.84e19).
Hmm, now I’m curious… but I see lvxferre has already done the math.
It’s an old story from the middle east (maybe part of the a thousand and one nights story?), I think, about a king who granted a favor to someone, only requiring that it be small. The philosopher/farmer/common-man hero had the humble request of filling a chess board with grains of rice, starting with one on the first tile, but doubling each time. Some variants, you’ll hear it as a gold coin. Anyone who does the math in their head, that’s 2^63 on the last tile, plus all the others (so 2^64-1), which is more grains of rice than probably exist, maybe more than ever have existed (1.84e19).
Hmm, now I’m curious… but I see lvxferre has already done the math.
Thank you!