I wish Tom Hanks and Idris Elba a speedy recovery from COVID-19. But by the time this is over, as many as 60% of us may get it.
The reason is that the virus is spreading exponentially. That’s a math term which means the rate of change is proportional to the original number. For example, if something decreases by half or grows by a factor of three.
Many people don’t understand how that works. To demonstrate, I highly recommend a great book by one of my favorite author/illustrators, Demi.
The book One Grain of Rice illustrates the concept of “exponentially” perfectly. It’s the story of a rajah who believes himself to be wise and fair, but he uses his hungry people's rice for himself year after year. Then a village girl named Rani devises a clever plan. She asks the raja for one grain of rice, and then to double it every day for a month.
On the first day the raja gives her one grain. The second day she gets two. By day eight, she’s up to 128. Soon the numbers explode. On day 22, she gets over 2 million grains of rice. By the thirtieth day, the page is filled with rice — enough to feed all the hungry people in his domain.
That’s how quickly something can grow — exponentially.
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