A male bee has only 1 parent(a mother) and a female bee has two parents (a mother and a father). Assuming all ancestors are distinct, how many great, great, great, great grandparents does a male bee have?
To calculate the number of great, great, great, great grandparents a male bee has, we need to understand the concept of generations and how they relate to the number of ancestors.
Every individual has two parents, one mother, and one father. That means in each generation, the number of ancestors doubles.
Let's break it down:
- In the first generation, the male bee has 1 parent (mother).
- In the second generation, the male bee has 2 parents (mother and father).
- In the third generation, the male bee has 4 grandparents because each parent has two parents.
- In the fourth generation, the male bee has 8 great-grandparents.
- In the fifth generation, the male bee has 16 great, great-grandparents.
To determine the number of great, great, great, great grandparents, we need to know the number of generations. In this case, there are four "greats" specified.
Each "great" indicates another doubling: 2^4 = 16.
Therefore, a male bee has 16 great, great, great, great grandparents.