Ballpark
Puzzle #44 · 2 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. Before Britain switched to decimal currency in 1971, how many pence made up one pound?
240 pence
240 pence: 20 shillings of 12 pence each. The reckoning came from the Frankish kingdom and reached England perhaps in the seventh century. Source
Image: Eduard Petrov · CC0
2. How many people live in Tokyo, per the UN's 2025 city estimates?
33M people
About 33 million. Long ranked No. 1, Tokyo is now third behind Jakarta (~42M) and Dhaka (~40M). Source
Image: Morio · CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
3. About how many hair cells does one human cochlea (inner ear) contain?
16,000 hair cells
About 16,000, and they do not grow back. The retina, by comparison, has about 127 million photoreceptors. Source
4. What is the largest wingspan ever measured on a living species of bird (a wandering albatross)?
363 centimeters
363 cm (3.63 m, or 11 ft 11 in). The male wandering albatross was caught by an Antarctic research ship in the Tasman Sea in 1965. Source
Image: JJ Harrison · CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
5. One ostrich egg weighs about as much as how many chicken eggs, according to San Diego Zoo?
24 chicken eggs
About 24. At more than 3 pounds (1,500 g), the ostrich egg is the largest egg of any living animal, and also the largest single cell. Source
Image: Alina Zienowicz · CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped