Cell Parameter A1: The number of new participants that each participant is to recruit. In real life, this number would vary greatly from one participant to another, but that would be very difficult to simulate, so this simulation will assume that every participant recruits the same number of new participants, as defined in this cell. The version of this chain letter which I saw most recently contained examples based on the assumption that each participant would recruit five new participants, so that is the number I have used here by default. A2: The amount of money that each new participant is to pay to each participant above him in the list. The chain letter I'm basing this on uses the amount of one dollar. A3: The approximate human population of the world. Where any number appears in this spreadsheet which represents a number of people, if the number exceeds this parameter, it will be displayed in red.
I have just noticed something that may be confusing. When I refer to people who are Above others in the pyramid, I mean people who joined before, and who are in a higher Phase number. However, my spreadsheet shows Phases increasing in number as you move downward on the sheet. So a person who is above another in the pyramid will appear in a phase that is listed below the other on the sheet. I hope this explanation will suffice to prevent you, the reader, from becoming confused or mislead by this ambiguity.For purposes of this simulation, I am assuming that the originator sent out his copies of the original letter with only his name in the last position, and empty spaces in the first five positions. I am assuming, further, that the originator did not make any payment to anyone, that those he recruited made payments only to him, that those recruited in the next level made payments only to two people, and so on, until the list was filled. Thus, the cost to join the scheme was lower for those who got in in the first six cycles, increasing by one payment each cycle until the maximum of six payments is reached. Rows 15 through 21, therefore, show what the people in each phase had to pay to join the scheme.