cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55633776
Is this just exponential growth, or do I not get the reference?
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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I have no idea about the meme format (though I see this is a cross post from anti memes), but the picture is a reference to a famous legend about exponential growth:
Allegedly, the inventor of chess asked the ruler of India (where it was invented) for payment in the form of rice, with a single grain in the first square and the amount doubling for each subsequent square. The ruler agreed, believing the amount to be small, but soon found out there was not enough rice in India to pay the man.
There is a story about a guy who got a wish from a king or something. He said he wanted a grain of rice on a chessboard and double it on every square. The king didn't exect much of it and the guy got a shit ton of rice.
I think he got killed for being a douche.
It doesn't really make sense from the picture, because the grains just grow randomly insted of exponentially
They are growing exponentially on the diagonal from the right downward and to the left.
I’m wondering why they chose that pattern instead of going straight across a row or column.
There are lots of ways to fill a 2D space with a single non-crossing path. I'm sure counting the ways could be interesting to some. I guess you'd prefer a zig-zag oriented orthogonal to the sides, rather than the corners. This orientation fills the frame of a photo a little better though given the perspective. You could also make a spiral. I think the Hilbert space filling curve is way more interesting, but probably would make for a confusing photo.
I was thinking it would be interesting to see the functions for a given diagonal in OPs scheme, versus a row or column based approach. Then it occurred to me it might be easy to transform between these variants.
Not randomly, they keep doubling
Yeah, it's just along the diagnols.
What kind of psycho would run it along the diagonals?
The moral of that story is not to be a smartass with someone who has more power than yourself
I don't get it either. If I had to guess, I'd say there's Loss hidden there somewhere.
Ooh good theory. Maybe Saddam is hidden there too somewhere.
Doesn't this story end with the guy getting executed basically for being a wanker?
Why the double smile?
Person who knows asks the person who doesn't know to pay them in grains of rice by putting a grain of rice on one square of a chess board and double it for each other square. So one in the first, two in the second, four in the third, etc. So 1 doubled 64 times. The one who don't understand thinks they're getting a deal and it'll end up as a modest amount of rice. The one who does understand knows that the total will be 1.8x10^19^ grains of rice on the board. Hence they are both smiling... at first.
For reference, assuming an average grain of rice is 5 millimeters long, laying all that rice end-to-end would stretch 9.75 light years.
Ohhh it's an "at first" take? Thats kinda not how the meme works. I know the whole story, but that would normally have one person smiling, the other not.
Doesn't matter if you know or not. Nothing bad
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