Ballpark

Puzzle #1 · 20 September 2026

The five questions from that day's Ballpark, each with its answer, the fact behind it and a link to the source. Rather play it first? It is in the archive.

1. About how many bubbles form in a single glass of champagne?

1M bubbles

About 1 million, per physicist Gérard Liger-Belair. The figure usually quoted before his 2014 study was 15 million. Source

Image: Quinn Daedal · CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

2. How many copies of Minecraft had been sold as of October 2023?

300M copies

Over 300 million, a milestone announced at Minecraft Live 2023, a year before the game turned 15. Source

Image: Xbox México · CC BY 3.0, cropped

3. What was the Mona Lisa valued at for insurance in 1962, the highest such valuation on record?

100M US dollars

$100 million. The policy was never actually taken out: top-level security cost less than the premiums. Source

Image: Robert LeRoy Knudsen · Public domain

4. How many Earths would fit inside the Sun?

1.3M Earths

About 1.3 million by volume. Source

Image: NASA/SDO · Public domain

5. How far from Earth is the James Webb Space Telescope?

1.5M kilometers

1.5 million km. Webb circles the Sun, not Earth, at a spot called L2. Source

Image: NASA/Chris Gunn · CC BY 2.0, cropped