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Ocean · Puzzle #8 · Wednesday, October 7

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. Ocean has been retired: for more questions like these, play today's Best Guess.

  1. 1. The cruise ship Island Princess carries about 2,210 guests. How many pounds of fruit does it go through in a day?

    The answer: 4,700 pounds. Its galley runs 180 refrigerators and 60 stoves.

    Napkin math
    1. 2,210guests
    2. ×2pounds of fruit each a day

    ≈4,420pounds

    Source: Princess Cruises, Island Princess Fun Facts

  2. 2. Northern elephant seal mothers give birth on the beaches at Piedras Blancas, California, from mid-December to early February. How many pups are born there each winter?

    Photo: National Marine Sanctuaries, Public domain

    The answer: more than 5,000. January is the busiest month, and the pups nurse for only about four weeks before their mothers head back to sea.

    Napkin math
    1. 7weeks of pupping season
    2. ×7days a week
    3. ×100pups born a day

    ≈4,900pups

    Source: San Luis Obispo Tribune (via Yahoo), Elephant seal pups are back at the beach. Here’s where to see them in SLO County

  3. 3. World Surf League contests reached about 80 million viewers in 2025. How many views did the WSL's videos get that season?

    The answer: 849 million. Its posts were seen 1.5 billion times, up almost half from 2024.

    Napkin math
    1. 80Mviewers
    2. ×10videos watched by each

    ≈800Mviews

    Source: World Surf League, World Surf League Drives Record Audience and Global Growth During 2025 Season

  4. 4. In 2026 the Army Corps of Engineers pumped 2.15 million cubic yards of sand onto the Grand Strand beaches in South Carolina. If dump trucks had carried it all, how many miles would the trucks stretch, parked bumper to bumper?

    Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0

    The answer: about 1,100 miles. That line of 215,000 trucks would run from Charleston nearly to the Canadian border.

    Napkin math
    1. 2.15Mcubic yards of sand
    2. ÷10cubic yards in a dump truck
    3. ×30feet per truck
    4. ÷5,280feet a mile

    ≈1,221.59miles

    Source: U.S. Army, Holding the line: The sacrificial sands of the Grand Strand

All of puzzle #8 · The archive