document.write( "Question 11520: Another one of those problems i cant figure out... can you help? Here it goes: A peasant had the wonderful good fortune to save the life of the King of Siam. The King in turn, granted her payment in any form she wished. \"Im a simple woman,\" said the peasant; \"I wish merely to never be hungry again.\" The peasant asked to have payment made onto a huge chessboard painted on the floor. Payment was to be as follows: one grain of rice on the first square, two grains on the second square, four grains on the third square, eight on the fourth, etc... until all 64 squared were filled. How many grains of rice will the peasant receive from the King? Roughly what volume of rice is this? \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #5971 by Earlsdon(6294) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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This is another version of the legend of King Shiram of India who wanted to reward his grand vizier Sissa Ben Dahir for inventing and presenting to him the game of chess. The clever vizier wanted a grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two grains on the second square, four on the next, and so, doubling the number on each successive square until all of the 64 squares of the chessboard were covered.\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Well, this works out to be: $\"2%5E64+-+1\"$ grains of wheat (or rice, in your problem). \r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( " $\"2%5E64+-+1\"$ = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The volume of rice? How do you tell? 5,000,000 grains of rice in a bushel?\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Around 400 billion bushels of rice! \n" ); document.write( "

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