The Math Behind Dragon’s Beard Candy: Exploring Logarithms #oneminutemath

Check out the main channel! @polymathematic Today, we’re diving into the unexpected intersection of logarithms and candy-making. Ever heard of dragon’s beard candy? It’s a mesmerizing process where the candy-maker starts with a single loop of candy and then doubles it over and over. By the time she’s done, she’s created over a million loops of the candy. This got me thinking – what if we knew the number of loops and we wanted to work immediately backwards to the number of folds that it look to make them. To determine that, we need to be able to count, but not count like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Instead, we need to be able to count by powers of 2. Fortunately, there is such a tool that will help us count that way, and that tool is the logarithm. The logarithm will take a number like 1,048,576 as an input and return which power that number is of a certain base. The base of the logarithm, in this case 2, is the same as the exponential base that would generate the count in the first place. So, for example, log base 2 of 4 is 2 because 4 is the second power of 2. Log base 2 of 32 is 5 because 32 is the fifth power of 2. And finally, log base 2 of 1,048,576 gives our 20 folds precisely because 1,048,576 is the 20th power of 2. #oneminutemath #logarithms #exponential Follow Tim Ricchuiti: TikTok: @polymathematic Mathstodon: @polymathematic Instagram: Reddit: Facebook: Watch more Math Videos: Math Minis: Math Minutes: Number Sense: MATHCOUNTS: