Comments on: THE SOLUTION TO Weekly Challenge 3: What Can You Do With a Humongous Piece of Xerox Paper? http://blogontheuniverse.org/2009/06/23/the-solution-to-weekly-challenge-3-what-can-you-do-with-a-humongous-piece-of-xerox-paper/ getting anyone emotional about science, helping parents and teachers make science an adventure Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:54:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Rick Regan http://blogontheuniverse.org/2009/06/23/the-solution-to-weekly-challenge-3-what-can-you-do-with-a-humongous-piece-of-xerox-paper/comment-page-1/#comment-70 Rick Regan Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:33:40 +0000 http://blogontheuniverse.org/?p=3231#comment-70 My favorite illustration of the powers of two is the one that goes like this: if I give you 1 cent today, then 2 cents tomorrow, then 4 cents the next day, etc. for 30 days, how much money will you have? $10,737,418.23! Not only does it illustrate the power of doubling, but it involves the sum of a geometric series (the sum from i=0 to 29 of 2^i = 2^30-1). It also avoids the practical troubles of folding, or of putting grains of rice on a chessboard (another popular illustration). Of course you could skip the story, and go right to a table of powers of two (e.g. http://www.exploringbinary.com/a-table-of-nonnegative-powers-of-two/ ). My favorite illustration of the powers of two is the one that goes like this: if I give you 1 cent today, then 2 cents tomorrow, then 4 cents the next day, etc. for 30 days, how much money will you have? $10,737,418.23!

Not only does it illustrate the power of doubling, but it involves the sum of a geometric series (the sum from i=0 to 29 of 2^i = 2^30-1). It also avoids the practical troubles of folding, or of putting grains of rice on a chessboard (another popular illustration).

Of course you could skip the story, and go right to a table of powers of two (e.g. http://www.exploringbinary.com/a-table-of-nonnegative-powers-of-two/ ).

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