Magically Doubling Penny

[dlf]

I think we've all have heard of the "magically doubling" penny (or grain of rice), well I just (in excel) calculated the amount that "penny" would be worth (or how many you'd have) after one year. It's quite large:

$375,766,813,243,813,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00

 

The colored zeros are to help count how many, I think it's about 30+ zeros. Just a little pointless thing, but my god . . . .

[SimpleG]

Whats the magically doubling penny?

[Nikeshp79]

Whats the magically doubling penny?

maybe a penny that doubles per unit time for a year?

[dlf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem. Replace grain with penny. Along with "would you rather have a penny that doubles everyday (for a year?) or 5 dollars?

[Mujteba]

maybe a penny that doubles per unit time for a year?

 

Whats the magically doubling penny?

 

Give me 1 penny today and keep doubling each subsequent day for one year.

[Cazzman]

Originally the story was about the guy inventing the game of chess.
As a reward he was allowed to name any price.
He asked for one grain of wheat/rice to be placed on the first square, 2 on the second, four on the third etc...

The Sultan/king thought he had a great deal on his hands. Not realising that when he would fill the last square he would have to give the man more than the country's entire grain reserves.
Thus learning the lessons that if you're not carefull with a series that squares itself you'll be throwing a lot of money at someone.