Small Rice Grain, Big Effect: Physicists use ancient model to sell advertisement chess fields on the Internet

Berlin, June 20, 2008 - Axel Lilienblum and Markus Müller were inspired by the inventor of the chess game for their website ricegraineffect.com, which launched on June 19 in Berlin. On the webpage, the two former physics students sell the 8x8 fields of a virtual chess board – buyers such as entrepreneurs, artists, or independent web site owners from around the world can use the fields for advertisement. The trick: a field initially only costs one cent, but after the purchase, another buyer may buy the square – for double the price. The first buyer then gets his money back.

They idea of selling advertisement space by the pixel is not new: in 2005 a British student made a fortune by selling single image-spaces on his “Million Dollar Homepage.” However, for the two Germans Axel Lilienblum and Markus Müller this venture is not only about the money – they view this site as an interesting experiment inspired by the legend of the “Chess Board and the Rice Grains.” According to this story, the inventor of the chess game demanded an unusual form of compensation from his king: the ruler was to place but one rice grain on the first square, two on the second, then four and so on. In other words, he should always double the amount of rice grains for each subsequent square – up until the last square was filled. Astonishingly, what first looked like very little turned out to be a stupendous amount – 500 billion tons of rice.

The explanation for this is a mathematical phenomenon: “exponential growth,” which also plays a role in nuclear chain reactions. Similarly, after every new stage of the “Rice Grain Effect” the price will double. “We are simply interested to see how far this goes. Will this site ever surpass the 100 Euro benchmark? Who buys the squares and what will be their pattern?” say the physicists. How this virtual chessboard evolved is explained in a “history” section – there the experiment is explained visually for everyone to understand.

Initially then, all 64 advertisement spaces are available for one Euro-cent. However, those who want to get in at such a cheap rate need to hurry up: the banner ads will only stay up as long as no one else buys the space for two cents. After that, the prices will double (four cents, eight cents . . .). “If our idea works, enough people around the world will find this idea interesting enough to spread the word, which will attract more viewers. This on the other hand will make the advertisement spaces more attractive and the prices go up,” the two owners speculate. The experiment is over only after no fields have been purchased for one year.

If you are bought out at some point, however, there is no need for anger. You will get the money back and the space was yours for free in the long run. Only the very last buyer will actually have to pay the full price. On the other hand, his advertisement will be run indefinitely.

Rice Grain Effect
Wolliner Str. 12
10435 Berlin
Germany

www.ricegraineffect.com

phone +491607976609
email contact@ricegraineffect.com
info ricegraineffect.wordpress.com/tag/press

Axel Lilienblum (born 1979) studied physics at TU Berlin, then worked as a consultant and musician, and is now a freelancer in Berlin. Markus Müller Ph.D. (born 1978) studied physics and mathematics at TU Berlin and is currently a post-doctorial fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute in Leipzig.

This release was published on openPR.