We had a person who wanted to donate to Comics Help Kids Read, the charity I discussed in a separate blog, (found at www.gofundme.com/comicshelpkidsread) and he asked how much I wanted the donation to be. I jokingly said a penny for every space on a checkerboard, but I want the penny to double for each space. He said, "Done". He had no idea what he was getting into.
I turned him down because what he was thinking, and what the reality of the situation was, were completely different. Even Bill Gates couldn't make a donation that size. (see the bottom of the blog to see what the total dollar amount would be if a penny were doubled for every space on a checkerboard).
Let me ask you a question. If someone offered to donate $5 million right now in cash OR donate a penny each day for a month, doubling it each day, which would you take? The smart bet is on the penny that doubles each day. It doesn't seem logical to turn down $5 million right now for a mere penny doubling each day though, does it? Think about it, at the end of 16 days you wouldn't have even broken $1,000 yet if you were doing the "penny a day, doubled daily" plan.
Let's talk a look because things aren't always what they seem.
Let's take a standard month of 30 days. If we go by a penny doubled each day of the month it would look like this.
Day 1 = $.01
Day 2 = $.02
Day 3 = $.04
Day 4 = $.08
Day 5 = $.16
Day 6 = $.32
Day 7 = $.64
Day 8 = $1.28
Total donation based on days 1 - 8? $2.55 (maybe I should have taken the 5 mil...)
Let's keep going:
Day 9 = $2.56
Day 10 = $5.12
Day 11 = $10.24
Day 12 = $20.48
Day 13 = $40.96
Day 14 = $81.92
Day 15 = $163.84
Day 16 = $327.68
Total donation based on days 1 - 16? $655.35 (and the person who chose $5 million is out having fun and laughing at me.)
Again, let's trudge on:
Day 17 = $655.36
Day 18 = $1,310.60
Day 19 = $2,621.20
Day 20 = $5,242.40
Day 21 = $10,484.80
Day 22 = $20,969.60
Day 23 = $41,939.20
Day 24 = $83,878.40
Total donation based on days 1 - 24? $167,756.91 (maybe I should have taken the $5 million, what could possibly happen in the next 6 days?)
Day 25 = $167,756.80
Day 26 = $335,513.60
Day 27 = $671,027.20
Day 28 = $1,324,054.40
Day 29 = $2,684,108.80
Day 30 = $5,368,217.60
I didn't even hit the $5 million dollar mark, in total dollars, until Day 29, but then I crushed the competition with a grand total of $10,550,678.40. Yay!
If you want to win a bet this is the way to go. Ask someone the question above; if they had a choice between $5 million now or a penny that is doubled each day for a month, which would they rather have. Most people would pick the $5 million dollars. But you wouldn't, would you? Show the math and walk away with your winnings.
If you're gutsy enough you could even ask if the person would rather have $1 billion or a penny doubled for each space on a checkerboard. The dollar value you would have in pennies after doubling 1 penny for each spot on a checkerboard (in other words, doubling it 64 times) is $184,467,440,737,095,516.15. WOW! That is $184 sextillion dollars! Ah, the power of compounding...
Now I need to go out and ask someone if they're willing to donate a penny and double it for each day for a month year. Kids would never be without books again and I might even have some left over for a couple of comics for myself.
