TWO TIMES TWO

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1933, Page 3

TWO TIMES TWO

FARMER BREAKS 'CONTRACT. Early in. the .eighteenth century a farmer mad e a contract which .he thought uvas a good one for-him. Be undertook to deliver .for the, sum of £5 two grains of rye on the following Monday, four grams a week later, eight grain*-; the. week after that, and so on for a a year. All went well for some weeks, but presently he hound that his final delivery at the end of th-3 year would r-equiig more rye than -was sown in the whole of ■England.

A lawsuit took place oyer'the contract. What the farmer had not realised was that though twice two are four, two multiplied by itself fifty-two times comes to .nearly ten thousand billion. This number of grains of rye would represent about 8000 million bushels. An . acre of rye-, produces, about ten bushels, so one. can . work out just how many acres would have been required to fulfil the. contract. Another famous “two times’’ case was that of a blacksmith who undertook to shoe a horse for a payment of one farthing for the first nail, a haff-penny for the second, a penny for the third, and so on. At first sight this .spems nu'itc a reasonable charge-—but try working it out;