Orders of Magnitude

About Orders of Magnitude

Orders of Magnitude is a daily estimation game about gut feeling. Nobody knows how many windows there are in Manhattan or how much you will pee in a lifetime, so the game does not ask for the exact number: you drag a slider to set the power of ten you think is closest, from ten to the power zero up past ten to the power thirty.

Each day has six questions, the same for everyone, worth up to 600 points. The right power of ten earns 100 points, and you lose points for every zero you are off, though big answers are more forgiving than small ones: one zero out at a hundred costs half the points, while one zero out at ten to the power thirty still earns 91. Miss by too many zeros and the question scores nothing. After each round the game explains where its estimate comes from.

The questions are written by people with help from AI, and every answer is a best estimate. Missed days are in the Past puzzles archive. There are no cookies, no ads and no accounts.

It suits fans of Fermi problems and napkin maths who want a few minutes of reasoning about scale.

How to play Orders of Magnitude

1. Open Orders of Magnitude and start today's puzzle.
2. Read the question about a huge or tiny quantity.
3. Drag the slider, swipe or use the arrow keys to choose the number of zeros.
4. Press Submit and read how the real estimate was worked out.
5. Answer all six questions for up to 600 points.

Screenshots

Tips

• Break the question into parts you can estimate, then multiply.
• For very large quantities, a guess within one or two zeros still scores well.
• Play the Past puzzles to calibrate your sense of scale.

Questions