This is a post about tagging and very large numbers, and how the two come together.
Let me introduce the topic this way (you may already know it): A wise man is offered a reward for something or other by a ruler. He appears to ask a very modest amount, namely, that he be given an amount of wheat calculated as follows: one grain of wheat on the first square of a chessboard, two grains on the next, four on the next, eight on the next and so on.
It doesn't sound like a lot, but the total number of grains is one less than 2 to the power 64; a very big number. In fact it is the wheat yield of the entire earth, assuming we grew nothing but wheat, for the next 80 years. That's the nature of exponential growth.
Move on to tagging. This particular tag has you identify five blogs that you like, each of whom thus tagged must come up with another five and so on. I was tagged in this way, recently, by three utterly delightful people whose blogs I enjoy greatly: millennium housewife, ngorobobhillhouse and the times of miranda.
However I do not take this as evidence that my blog is irresistible. Rather, I think we have a slight chessboard and wheat situation developing here. If 2 to the power something is big, then 5 to the power something is even bigger. Just how big? Well have a look at this series:
The first person tags 5
Each of them tags five, so that's 5 x 5 or 25. (Actually, strictly speaking it is 25 plus the original 5, giving 30. We should accumulate as we go, but it doesn't really change the logic).
In the next it is 125 (5 x 5 x 5) ...
OK, starting from 1 again, and taking it up to 15 successive taggings we have this series:
1. 5
2. 25
3. 125
4. 625
5. 3,125
6. 15,625
7. 78,125
8. 390,625
9. 1,953,125
10. 9,765,625
11. 48,828,125
12. 244,140,625
13. 1,220,703,125
14. 6,103,515,625 (this is about the population of Earth)
15. 30,517,578,125
16. eek, my head hurts
I'm still very happy to nominate blogs that I like; but I think I'm not going to tell them they've been tagged; not enough untagged blogs left on the planet!
baino's banter
the gold puppy
not enough mud
jolly good yarn girl
working mum on the verge
little brown blog
Yes, I can count, since you ask.
PS - you can still tag me!
PPS - another fun example of exponential growth. This is physically impossible, but suppose you could fold a piece of paper in half, then in half again, and so on, for 32 times. How thick would it be? Answer - so thick that it reach the orbit of the moon. No kidding.
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20 comments:
Ahh . . numbers . . I'm going blind! OK I'll play your silly game (but I dont get it)
Good grief, is this how a scientist does a tag? LOL Scary!
Thank you! Is it sad that being tagged makes my day? Or do I just have a very boring day ahead of me? Sigh.
Appreciated though! And I will now have to make my selection....
Fascinating. I tried the folding paper trick. Do you know what? The moon really is made of cheese (bleu d'Auvergne). Delicious.
whoa. bloody hell. just read nice day to die...man. you still got things to do in this life...big time...whoa...x bisous x
baino - going blind? Hope not. That only happens to adolescent boys.
drowsey - er, I think you may be right, on all counts.
mud - go for it, looking forward to see what you come up with.
dumdad - at last, someone who tried and succeeded. I knew it could be done. Glad you liked the cheese.
janelle - yup, not done yet; you are nice to care.
I studied the exponential curve for a whole term during my 'A' level years, this, despite the fact it wasn't in the syllabus.
All I can remember now is that when I pee it creates an exponential curve. Yippee!
enrnest?
Actually dot, hope you don't think I'm being pedantic, but I think you will find that's a parabola.
janelle?
just checking you're still there. phew. write another post goddamnit! x bisous x
janelle - you're right. Too much of my time is spent on house renovation just now. Must get back to the real world of blogging. This w/e then ... it's a promise.
Biss.
You lost me at 'numbers.'
I tuned in again at 'fold a piece of paper in half.'
Now I need a lie-down.
Thank you for mentioning me with your tag, quite a surprise. I know all about this exponential lark; I teach the "miracle of compound interest" to my pupils!
I also have my maths geek thing going on today as I read Dot's comment and thought "No, parabola", but you've already put him straight and saved me from looking geeky again. Whoops, just done it anyway!
karen - you're not number blind, I don't believe you!
working mum - didn't know you did the maths thing. Hope your students appreciate it. Do you know the example in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe? You go back in time and invest a penny which millennia later has increased to the princely sum it takes to pay for your meal in the resturant at the end of the universe (if memory serves).
You're far too negative about being tagged three times, it's because you're good (and run two blogs, plain greedy I say) and people like to read you. I haven't checked this one out yet, I'll have a look one evening. Thanks for the tips on taging, how did you tag in a comment? It was impressive... MH
mh - I think you mean "how do you link in a comment". If so, couldn't be easier.
First create a new post. You will delete it later. The blogger editor has three tabs: Edit HTML, Compose and Preview. You probably use Compose and Preview.
In Compose mode write your comment such as "Very funny, I think you should look at this blog" where you want "this blog" to look like a link that readers can click.
Highlight the word or words that you want to be the link and then link them to a page as you normally would using the link button etc.
Now click the Edit HTML tag and you will see your text along with the actual HTML code for the link. Highlight the whole lot (CTRL A is a shortcut for doing this) and then copy with CTRL C.
It's all in the clipboard now, so find the post where you want to comment, bring up the comment box, click in it and do a CTRL V to past your text plus code. When you publish your comment, you will see it complete with link.
Now you can go back (sometime) and delete the post you created in the first place.
It is easy - just takes longer to describe than to do.
ok Earnest, that was akin to taking a degree in IT skills. But I'm trying it out on you.. Good luck, can you click on this one MH
Yes, I do know the Hitchhiker's example! I think I'll stop now; definitely too geeky!
eek - your head hurts, mine exploded!
this post only reinforces my thought that it's good to break these types of darned things (chains, tags, pyramid schemes) before they take over.....
mh - it worked!
wm - are you sure girls are allowed to be geeks?
mouse - break the buggers, you are so right! Actually some of the historic money making pyramids were quite interesting. Amazing where some creativity ends up.
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