Powers of 2

[Markbnj]

An effective demonstration at about 1:30 in this video, but watch the setup too 🙂.

http://www.wimp.com/honeystrings/

 

[Train]

Did you ever get the math story in school that went something like this:

Tell your mom you only want allowance for one month, and that the payment would go like this: 1 cent the fist day, and double it each day, so 2 pennies, 4 pennies, etc. The idea being that she agrees to this thinking it would never get very large...

Then the class tries to define what the payment would be for each day, and what the sum of all payments would be.

 

[eLiu]

Did you ever get the math story in school that went something like this:

Tell your mom you only want allowance for one month, and that the payment would go like this: 1 cent the fist day, and double it each day, so 2 pennies, 4 pennies, etc. The idea being that she agrees to this thinking it would never get very large...

Then the class tries to define what the payment would be for each day, and what the sum of all payments would be.

There's a super famous (to math nerds at least) story that goes along those lines... see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem

I think I heard it as grains of rice, but whatevs.

 

[degibson]

An effective demonstration at about 1:30 in this video, but watch the setup too 🙂.

http://www.wimp.com/honeystrings/

Quite the entertainer.

 

[esun]

Did you ever get the math story in school that went something like this:

Tell your mom you only want allowance for one month, and that the payment would go like this: 1 cent the fist day, and double it each day, so 2 pennies, 4 pennies, etc. The idea being that she agrees to this thinking it would never get very large...

Then the class tries to define what the payment would be for each day, and what the sum of all payments would be.

My high school physics professor said something to the effect of: "By the way, if you want a good grade, I do accept bribes. Just bring me one penny today, two pennies tomorrow, and so on until the end of the semester."