Rice on a chessboard
An old tale and a number that doubles every step. Where it ends up is almost impossible to picture.
A delighted king told a wise man, “Name your reward.” He asked for something tiny: one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, and so on, doubling on every square up to square 64.
The king laughed and agreed. How much could that be? Then the counting began… tap through the squares and see for yourself.
The chessboard
Fun fact: every square holds exactly one more grain than all the squares before it put together.
Counting one grain per second?
Counting the whole board would take about 585 billion years, without a single break.
Maths: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 seconds ÷ the seconds in a year (taking a year as 365.25 days).
Small things that keep doubling barely register at first, then they surprise us. That is the quiet magic of compounding.
Random pages are for fun, not investment advice.