Fermi Quiz

Aim:
To estimate the values of various quantities.
Materials:
None
Method:
For each of the questions listed on the next sheet give the closest power of ten to the answer (e.g. if your estimate is 550 then your answer should be 3, as 550 is closer to 103 than 102). The mark given to each question will be the difference between your estimate and the correct value.
Conditions:
The answer must be given in the units specified. For those quantities that must be guessed the judge's decision is final (i.e. the judge is always right, even when he's wrong).
Time Limit:
To be completed by the end of the first event after lunch.
Ranking:
The ranking order will be determined by the sum of the marks for all of the questions - the lowest mark gets the highest rank.

Questions:

What is the time delay between an earthquake in the center of the Pacific Ocean and the resulting tsunami striking California?(s)

The number of ears of corn on an acre of good farmland just before harvest?

The number of 60 Watt light bulbs needed to match the total light output of the sun.

The length of coastline on the planet earth?

The volume of pennies required to make up 1 trillion (1012) U.S. dollars?(m3)

Number of gumballs that would fit inside the earth?

Ratio of the number of people alive to the total number of dead people?

How many hairs on all the U.S. congressmen (and women)?

Pounds of pizza eaten per person in the United States annually?(lbs)

Number of undergraduate physics majors in the U.S. annually?

Number of seeds in a pumpkin?

Mass of 1 cubic centimeter of pure nuclear matter?(g)

Imagine a rope wrapped tightly around the earth. Now add 1-meter length to the rope and wrap it (in a perfect circle) around the earth again. How high above the earth's surface is the rope?(m)

Estimate the mass of 1000 lead spheres, each sphere is 1 mm in diameter(kg)

What is the average deceleration experienced by a person involved in a head-on collision at 60 mph (ms-2)