Number PatternsPowers & IndicesMedium
The Doubling Chessboard
One grain on square one, doubling each square — the count explodes past belief.
Worked demonstration
On a chessboard you place 1 grain of rice on the first square, then DOUBLE the grains on every square after it. How many grains sit on square number 12?
Try it yourself
Why it works
Square k holds 2^(k-1) grains; doubling 63 times reaches numbers larger than any harvest — the signature of exponential growth.
Background & Explore Further
The wheat-and-chessboard legend illustrates exponential growth — the same math behind compound interest, viral spread and Moore's Law. Explore how quickly doubling outruns linear intuition.
Maths Made Magic — Queen Mary University of London (cs4fn)