![]() In mathematics, it's a demonstration of extreme growth.īut in the real world, this story teaches a different lesson, and that lesson is this: exponential growth cannot be sustained. From the one grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, the amount increases to the point that by the time you get to square 64, there are over 18 quintillion grains of rice on the board. He had the inventor killed, as an object lesson in the perils of trying to outwit the king.įor the most part, this fable is used as a lesson in the power of exponential growth. Then he did the only rational thing a king could do in those circumstances. The king took in this information and thought for a while. The treasurer explained that the sum could not be paid - by the time you got even halfway through the chessboard, the amount of grain required was more than the entire kingdom possessed. The king, outraged that the treasurer had disobeyed him, immediately summoned him and demanded to know why the inventor had not been paid. A week later, the inventor went before the king and asked why he had not received his reward. The king, baffled by such a small price for a wonderful game, immediately agreed, and ordered the treasurer to pay the agreed upon sum. ![]() Then two grains on the second square, four grains on the third, and so on. The inventor asked that a single grain of rice be placed on the first square of the chessboard. ![]() As the story goes, when chess was presented to a great king, the king offered the inventor any reward that he wanted. The "back half of the chessboard" is a reference to the old story about the inventor of chess. ![]()
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