Ballpark

Puzzle #43 answers

Puzzle #43 · 1 November 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 doses of penicillin were manufactured in preparation for the D-Day landings of June 1944, per the US National WWII Museum?

A flat glass wartime fermentation vessel with a crust of penicillium mould growing on the liquid inside

2.3M doses

2.3 million doses, made by 21 US companies working together. In March 1942, treating a single patient had used up half of the entire US supply. Source

Image: Science Museum, London / Wellcome · CC BY 4.0, cropped

2. How many double stitches are on a regulation Major League baseball?

Macro close-up of a white baseball's curving seam of red double stitches

108 double stitches

108 double stitches, or 216 individual ones, in red thread. Every ball is still made by hand. Source

Image: Tage Olsin · CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

3. How many original Volkswagen Beetles were built in total by the time production ended in 2003?

A pale 1960 Volkswagen Beetle parked in front of the Volkswagen factory's brick power station, marked with the VW logo, in Wolfsburg

21.5M cars

21,529,464. The last one rolled off the production line in Puebla, Mexico, on 30 July 2003. Source

Image: Roger Wollstadt · CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

4. How many bones are in one human hand, wrist included?

X-ray of an adult hand showing the long finger bones and knuckles glowing white on black

27 bones

27: 8 in the wrist, 5 in the palm, 14 in the fingers. Source

Image: Mikael Häggström · CC0

5. How much milk did the average US dairy cow produce in 2025?

A black-and-white Holstein dairy cow standing in a green pasture dotted with yellow dandelions

24,390 pounds

24,390 lb per USDA. That is about 67 lb of milk every single day, and 7.2% more than in 2016. Source

Image: Keith Weller/USDA · Public domain

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