Chess is the game of kings they said! It not only teaches one how to strategise but also develops patience, fosters intelligence and builds memory and critical thinking skills. No doubt Chess classes are quite popular amongst the children today. But did you know that a game of chess taught the King of Ambalappuzha the power of Exponents! Yes… you read that right. The king learnt the math concept of exponents!
The legend has it that in the 15th century AD, The King of Ambalappuzzha was a huge fan of Chess and was always on the lookout for an opponent to play with. One day a sage challenged the King to a game of Chess but kept a condition. If he won then the king would gift him rice calculated in a particular manner – 1 grain on the first square of the chessboard, 2 grains on the second, 4 grains on the third square and so on till the 64th square. Every square would have double of the previous one’s quantity. The king agreed not realising what he was promising.
Well the game started and both the players gave it their all. However the King lost and to honor his promise he ordered for rice to be brought. He started keeping the grains of the rice on the chessboard but after sometime the quantities started rising exponentially. He eventually calculated and was shocked to realise he would need to give 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains which is trillions of metric tons. Just to give you an idea the modern day global rice production is estimated to be 518.14 million metric ton. Trillions vs mere millions metric tons of rice!
The King was now worried. It was then that the sage revealed his true identity. He was Lord Krishna, a revered Indian god, in disguise. He told the king that to fulfil the promise he should distribute paalpayasam, a sweet dish made out of rice and milk, everyday free of cost to the temple devotees. This paalpayasam is distributed in the Ambalappuzha temple even today!
So you see a Grade 7 maths concept was learnt so well by the king and this is what applied math is all about. Using the classroom learned concepts in real life for a deeper understanding of the said concepts. At The Talent Scholar we aim to achieve complete concept clarity through applied math and more to give your child that extra boost of confidence!
