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Re: ANCESTRY QUESTION?
Laurent Hodges (lhodges@iastate.edu)
22 Jan 1995 04:55:08 GMT
In article <3fe9e6$ha6@ns.sunbelt.net>, <decker@spt.tec.sc.us> wrote:
>How can we possibly have more ancestors in a coexisting generation than
>the total known population of the earth?
>
>I know for a fact that I have a mother and a father who each has a mother
>and a father, etc... The direct ancestral chart would look like so:
>Generation Population
>1 2 (Mother and father)
>2 4 (grandparents)
>3 8 (greatgrandparents)....
>20 1,048,576
>30 1,073,741,841
>Going backwards it does not take too long to run into a problem.
>
>What am I missing? Please email your response to me. Thanks
>Art Decker
>decker@spt.tec.sc.us
Shades of Poor Richard! Benjamin Franklin wrote a very funny piece on
this in one of his Poor Richard's Almanacks. His serious conclusion was
that people of speak of their "pure blood" are blathering idiots.
--
Laurent Hodges, Professor of Physics
12 Physics Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3160
(515) 294-1185 (office) 294-6027 (fax) lhodges@iastate.edu
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