Ballpark
Puzzle #6 · 25 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 species of bees are native to the United States?
4,000 species
About 4,000, out of more than 20,000 bee species worldwide. The familiar honeybee is not one of them: it is not native to the US. Source
Image: Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
2. How many laser beams does the US National Ignition Facility fire at its fusion target at once?
192 laser beams
192 beams, focused onto a target about the size of a pencil eraser within a few billionths of a second, delivering over 2 million joules. Source
Image: Christopher Michel · CC BY 2.0, cropped
3. How many missions did NASA's Space Shuttle fleet fly between 1981 and 2011?
135 missions
135 missions, from the first launch on April 12, 1981 to the final landing on July 21, 2011. Source
Image: NASA · Public domain
4. How tall is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai?
828 meters
828 m across 163 floors. It has been the world's tallest building since 2010. Source
5. How many points (line intersections) are there on a standard Go board?
361 points
361. The board is a grid of 19 by 19 lines, and stones are placed on the intersections rather than inside the squares. Source
Image: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Go -- 2021 -- 6748” · CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped