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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Jessica: every person has 2 birth parents, 4 birth grandparents, and so on. These people are known as ancestors. How many ancestors does a person have in each generation? write in exponential form. 3ed generation, great-grandparents? 4th generation? 10th generation? |
Hi Jessica,
Each person has 2 parents.
Each parent has 2 parents which are grandparents of the original person so that person has $2 \times 2$ grandparents.
Each grandparent has 2 parents so that's $2 \times 2 \times 2$ great grandparents.
Continue.
Penny
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