# Thread: Wheat on a chessboard math problem help

1. ## Wheat on a chessboard math problem help

The game of chess was invented by a mathematician named Sessa in the fifteenth century. The story goes that the King of Persia was so delighted by the game that he offered to let Sessa name his own reward Sessa replied that he would take one grain of wheat for the first square on his 8 by 8 chessboard, two grains for the second square, four grains for the third square and so on, doubling the number of grains each time until the 64th square was reached The king immediately called for a bag of grain to fill this simple request,but the reward turned out to be slightly more than he anticipated.

(1) Calculate how much wheat the King had
to give to Sessa
(2) Calculate how many Gampel Pavillions will be required to hold this amount of wheat.

For 1) I did 2*2^64 to get the amount of wheat I just need help with number two.I don't know how to start and I want to know if I did number 1 right. Does anyone know any websites that could help me with this problem?

2. It's hard to believe you are serious. Do you not understand that to answer "how many Gampel Pavillions will be required to hold this amount of wheat" you (and we) would have to know what a "Gampel Pavillion" is and how large it is.

3. #1.
$1+2+4+\cdots+2^{63}=2^{64}-1=18 446 744 073 709 551 615$

4. The volume of that stadium is ~13,506,853 cubic feet...

Next step is figuring out number of wheat grains in a cu.ft.
Couldn't find anything on that; so:
fill it with wheat grains
then count the grains!!