Would Anyone Care for a Game of Chess?

In a famous illustration of the power of exponential growth, the inventor of chess is said to have been asked by the King how he would like to be rewarded. His response sounded modest and straightforward: just pay me one grain of wheat on the first square of the chess board, and double that for each additional square. The King found this to be an absurdly humble respect, laughed, and ordered it so.

During fulfillment operations his treasury staff came to realize that the request would clear not only the granaries of the palace, nor of the entire kingdom, but of the entire world, many times over. If a single grain of wheat were 1/4 gram, the entire chessboard would have held over 4,611 billion tonnes. Worldwide total wheat production in 2007 was only 2.3 billion tons. It would take over 2,000 years to fulfill the inventor's request even now, from every wheat field on the planet.

Legend has it the King was not amused and the game's inventor left this world somewhat shortened.

But let's change a few elements...

Continued at the dreddit

#chess #exponentialgrowth #ebola

http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2ifbzi/would_anyone_care_for_a_game_of_chess/