Today we began exploring the idea of VERY large numbers in our math class. We started with an Indian legend. It goes something like this…

A king was a big chess enthusiast and had the habit of challenging wise visitors to a game of chess. One day, the god Krishna disguised himself as a traveling sage and was challenged by the king. To motivate his opponent the king offered any reward that the sage could name. The sage modestly asked just for a few grains of rice in the following manner: the king was to put a single grain of rice on the first chess square and double it on every consequent one.

Having lost the game and being a man of his word the king ordered a bag of rice to be brought to the chess board. Then he started placing rice grains according to the arrangement: 1 grain on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth and so on:

Our challenge is to find out how many grains of rice would be on the last square of the chessboard.

Ask your child what strategy they have chosen to find out how much rice is on the last square of the chessboard.

The next step: So how much is that really?