Ballpark

Puzzle #4 · 23 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. How many kilometers of submarine cable were in service worldwide as of early 2026?

1.5M kilometers

Over 1.5 million km. Source

Image: Gordon Leggett / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0, cropped

2. How many heartbeats does an average human have in a lifetime?

2.5B beats

About 2.5 billion at ~70 bpm over ~70 years. Source

Image: Jacek Halicki · CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

3. How many McDonald's restaurants were there worldwide at the end of 2023?

41,822 restaurants

41,822 restaurants in more than 100 countries, and about 95% of them were franchised. Source

Image: Northwalker · CC0

4. How many Earth days does Venus take to rotate once on its axis?

243 Earth days

243 Earth days. That is longer than Venus's whole year, which takes only 225 Earth days. Source

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

5. How far away is Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond the Sun?

40.2T kilometers

About 40.2 trillion km, or 4.25 light-years. Even its light takes more than four years to reach us. Source

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA · CC BY 2.0, cropped