Ocean · Puzzle #3 · Friday, October 2

Ocean: the answers

Four questions, each with one true number. Here they are with their answers, how to reason each one out, and where the number comes from. Play today's Ocean.

1. 1. How many days would it take a big sei whale to eat its own weight in food?

   

   The answer: about 50 days. Sei whales are among the fastest whales, able to top 34 miles per hour.

   Source: NOAA Fisheries, Sei Whale

2. 2. If Mount Everest were set on the bottom of Challenger Deep, how many feet of water would be above its summit?

   

   The answer: about 6,844 feet. Challenger Deep is about 35,876 feet deep, so the highest mountain on Earth would sit more than a mile underwater.

   Source: Guinness World Records, Highest mountain

3. 3. With about 6,600 passengers and 2,200 crew aboard, how many eggs does the cruise ship Symphony of the Seas go through in a week-long cruise?

   

   The answer: about 60,000 eggs. The same week takes about 9,700 pounds of chicken and 20,000 pounds of potatoes.

   1. 8,800people aboard
   2. ×1egg each a day
   3. ×7days

   ≈61.6keggs

   Source: CNN, Cruise ship food supplies: Amazing statistics on how much passengers eat

4. 4. Dale Webster surfed every single day for about 40 years. How many consecutive days of surfing does his Guinness World Record count?

   

   The answer: 14,642 days. Webster's streak ran from 2 September 1975 to 4 October 2015 in Northern California, and he caught at least three waves to shore every time.

   Napkin math: Forty years times 365 days a year is a little under 15,000 days.

   Source: Guinness World Records, Most consecutive days surfing

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