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Archiver > PABERKS > 1999-12 > 0944426799


From: "Leroy J. Miller" <>
Subject: Re: Number of Ancestors
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 13:46:39 -0700


wrote:
>
> Relative to the "number of ancestors" posts:
>
> It's obvious that an exponential growth such as would be the case cannot
> continue infinitely.Given the average length of a generation as 33 years or
> so, it seems to me that sometime around the beginning of this milennium
> (1000) each living person's ancestors will exceed the population of Europe.
> This is is an excellent example of what we all know to be true: our
> interconnectedness. Of course, there were people in the world other than
> Europeans, but, just for the sake of illustration, are there any on the list
> who are willing and able to crunch the population/ancestors numbers?
>
> Joe Drumheller
***************************************
This is no big problem for anyone with a calculator.

(1000/10) X 3 = 30
2 raised to the 30th power = 1,073,741,824

Of course, what everyone has been saying is true for each of us. Our
ancestral lines often lead back to the same person in different ways,
and therefore the number of our ancestors 1000 years ago is much smaller
than the theoretical maximum.

Leroy Miller

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