CH 32: Geometric Progression Sure Adds up
The idea of exponential growth and how quickly it can grow is well illustrated in a story called the "Legend of the Ambalappuzha Paal Payasam". The story goes that there is a king whose is so enamored by the game of chess that he offers any prize to a sage in his court if he can beat the king in a game. The sage says as a man of humble means he asks for but a few grains of rice, the specific amount to be determined by the chessboard. The first square on the board will have one grain of rice, the second square two grains, the third square four grains, and each subsequent square having twice the amount of the preceding square. The king is rather disappointed in such a meager prize and challenges the sage for more of a substantial prize from his vast kingdom. The sage declines, and then proceeds to win the game of chess. When the king starts to count out the grains of rice, it starts to dawn on him the true nature of the sage's request. By the 40th square, there are 64 squares on a chessboard, the king is in arrears on the order of a million million grains, not an insubstantial sum. By the last square he needed to procure trillions and trillions of tons of rice, more than even the world could produce. In the story, the sage morphs into the God Krishna, and the king agrees to pay the debt over time, giving out rice to pilgrims daily to right his debt.