Ballpark

Puzzle #24 · 13 October 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. How much caffeine is in an 8-oz cup of brewed coffee?

95 milligrams

About 95 mg. A 1.5-oz espresso shot has about 65 mg, and the FDA considers 400 mg a day safe for healthy adults. Source

Image: Julius Schorzman · CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

2. How much solar power reaches each square meter at the top of Earth's atmosphere, facing the Sun directly?

1,360 watts

About 1,360 watts per square meter, as measured by NASA satellites. A microwave oven uses about 1,000 watts. Source

Image: NASA/Tim Kopra · Public domain

3. How far did a young bar-tailed godwit fly nonstop from Alaska to Tasmania in 2022, the longest nonstop bird migration on record?

13,560 kilometers

About 13,560 km (8,425 miles) in 11 days and one hour, with no stops for food or rest. The satellite-tagged bird was only five months old. Source

Image: Wayne Butterworth · CC BY 4.0, cropped

4. What is the area of Antarctica, according to Britannica?

14.2M square kilometers

About 14.2 million square km (5.5 million square miles). Thick ice covers about 98% of the world's highest, driest, windiest and coldest continent. Source

Image: Murray Foubister · CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

5. How many Game Boy consoles did Nintendo sell worldwide over the system's lifetime, according to Nintendo's own sales data?

119M consoles

118.69 million, by Nintendo's own count. Of all its systems, only the Nintendo DS (154.02 million) and the Switch have sold more. Source

Image: Sammlung der Medien und Wissenschaft · CC BY 4.0, cropped