In a famous story, a wise man in India requests a reward promised by his king. The wise man shows the king a chessboard having 64 squares. "Put 1 grain of rice on the first square, 2 grains on the second square, 4 on the third square, 8 on the fourth square, and so on. That will be my reward."

The king readily agrees, and is ruined because the total number of rice grains turns out to be about 37 trillion trillion trillion grains of rice ? much more than the value of the entire kingdom. How many grains of rice go in the 12th square?

Question

In a famous story, a wise man in India requests a reward promised by his king. The wise man shows the king a chessboard having 64 squares. "Put 1 grain of rice on the first square, 2 grains on the second square, 4 on the third square, 8 on the fourth square, and so on. That will be my reward."

The king readily agrees, and is ruined because the total number of rice grains turns out to be about 37 trillion trillion trillion grains of rice ? much more than the value of the entire kingdom. How many grains of rice go in the 12th square?

anonymous · Answer

Silly king.