12 estimation questions for your next quiz night (with answers)
Questions where nobody knows the answer but everyone can guess, plus how to score an estimation round so it stays close until the end.
Normal quiz questions have a problem: either you know the answer or you don't. The people who know a lot win, and everyone else sits there feeling slow.
Estimation questions fix that. "How long is the Nile?" isn't something anyone knows to the kilometre, but everyone can have a go. A rough guess still scores, and the answer reveal always gets a reaction, especially when someone is wildly off.
Here are twelve good ones, taken from the question bank of our slider quiz ISH. The answers are at the bottom.
The questions
- How many floors does the Empire State Building have?
- How tall is Mount Kilimanjaro, in metres?
- How tall is Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest waterfall, in metres?
- How long is the river Nile, in kilometres?
- How long is the Great Wall of China, in kilometres, counting all its sections?
- How far is it from London to New York, in kilometres, in a straight line?
- How far is the Moon from the Earth, on average, in kilometres?
- How long is the Earth's circumference at the equator, in kilometres?
- How many years does it take Pluto to go once around the Sun?
- How many bones are there in an adult human body?
- How many people were on board the Titanic when it set sail?
- How many calories are there in a McDonald's Big Mac?
The answers
Show all answers
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1 | 102 floors |
| 2 | 5,895 m |
| 3 | 979 m |
| 4 | About 6,650 km. It's often listed as the world's longest river, though some measurements put the Amazon ahead. |
| 5 | About 21,196 km, according to a 2012 survey that counted every section built over the centuries. |
| 6 | About 5,570 km |
| 7 | About 384,400 km |
| 8 | About 40,075 km |
| 9 | 248 years |
| 10 | 206 |
| 11 | About 2,224 passengers and crew |
| 12 | About 550 kcal (the US figure; it varies slightly by country) |
How to score an estimation round
Right-or-wrong scoring doesn't work for these. Nobody will hit 5,895 exactly. Here are three ways that do work:
- Closest wins the point. Simple and quick. It works for small groups, but only one person scores per question.
- Rank the guesses. Closest gets 3 points, second closest 2, third 1. More people score, and it stays easy to count on paper.
- Points for distance, lowest total wins. Everyone gets penalty points based on how far off they were, and the lowest total wins. This is the fairest method, because a near miss costs almost nothing and a wild guess costs a lot. The downside is that it's a pain to calculate by hand.
A few more tips:
- Mix the scale. Some answers in the hundreds, some in the thousands, some in the hundreds of thousands. It stops people from settling into one range.
- Pick answers that don't change. Heights of mountains and distances between cities are safe. Populations, record holders and "the most expensive ever" go out of date quickly.
- Keep a tiebreaker in your back pocket. One estimation question, closest wins, settles any draw.
Or let the slider do the maths
Doing that third scoring method by hand is why we built ISH. Everyone answers on their phone with a slider, and the game calculates the penalty points instantly: the further off you are, the more points you get, and the lowest total wins. Land exactly on the answer and you get a bonus that takes points off your score.
There are over 4,000 questions in 14 categories, from geography and history to football, food and films. Sign in, and the game can write a custom quiz on any topic you like using AI.