Sheet # 72/ One Grain of Rice/Mathematical Folktale from India

Name: _____________________ Date_____________

Long ago in India, there lived a greedy and cruel raja (raja means king in Hindi). But every year, he kept nearly all of the people's rice for himself. When the famine came, the raja refused to share the rice, and the people went hungry.

Then a village girl Rani makes a clever plan. She does a good deed for the raja, and in return the raja lets her choose her reward. He asks her to name any wish. Her reply to the raja was, "I am a poor girl and my wants are few. All I ask for is for you to give me one grain of rice on the first day, 2 grains of rice on the second day, 4 grains of rice on the third day, and so on, doubling the number for next 30 days."

After Rani makes the deal with the raja, predict how much rice she ends up with. A lot of rice or not much? How did the story end? Did the raja learn any lesson?

Day	# of Grains of Rice	Amount of Rice
# 1	1	1
# 2	2	1+2 = 3
# 3	4	3 + 4 = 7
# 4	.	.
# 5	.	.
# 6	.	.
# 7	.	.
# 8	.	.
# 9	.	.
# 10	.	.
# 11	.	.
# 12	.	.
# 13	.	.
# 14	.	.
# 15	.	.
# 16	.	.
# 17	.	.
# 18	.	.
# 19	.	.
# 20	.	.
# 21	.	.
# 22	.	.
# 23	.	.
# 24	.	.
# 25	.	.
# 26	.	.
# 27	.	.
# 28	.	.
# 29	.	.
# 30	.	.

Answer for sheet # 72

Day	# of Grains of Rice	Amount of Rice
# 1	1	1
# 2	2	1+2 = 3
# 3	4	3 + 4 = 7
# 4	8	.8 + 7 = 15
# 5	16	16 + 15 = 31
# 6	32	32 + 32 = 63
# 7	64 + 63	127
# 8	128 + 127	255 grains (1 spoon)
# 9	1 spoon	2 spoons
# 10	2	2 + 2 = 4
# 11	4	8
# 12	8	16
# 13	16	32 (1 cup)
# 14	1 cup	2 cups
# 15	2 cups	4 cups (1 Kg)
# 16	1 kg	2 kg
# 17	2 kg	4 kg
# 18	4	8
# 19	8	16
# 20	16	32
# 21	32	64
# 22	64	128
# 23	128	256 kg
# 24	256 kg	.512 kg
# 25	512	.1024 kg (1 metric ton)
# 26	1 metric ton	.2 metric tons
# 27	2 metric tons	4 metric tons
# 28	4 metric tons	8 metric tons
# 29	8 metric tons	16 metric tons
# 30	16 metric tons	32 metric tons ( 32, 000 Kgs)

The raja ows 32 metric tons of rice at the end of 30 days. He did not have that much rice. He lost the bet.