JamCatWow

How to play Ballpark

Five things, one scale. Put each one where you think it belongs, then say how sure you are.

Three of a day's five things, on one scale. Each labelled step is ten times the one before

1/9
0/350 pts 🎉 Yay
  • Every day asks one question, like how heavy? or how long ago?, of five things
  • Tap a lane to place a thing on the scale. Tap again or drag to adjust, or type the number. Each labelled step of the scale is ten times the one before
  • With each guess, claim a range: how wide a window you bet the answer falls in. The claims are ±50%, ±2x, ±3x, ±5x, and a tighter one pays more
  • Nothing is revealed until you submit all five, and there is one shot at the day
  • No clock

Scoring

  • Each of the five is worth up to 100. Land inside your range and you bank 95 for ±50%, 90 for ±2x, 82 for ±3x, 73 for ±5x
  • Miss your own range and the points fall away gradually. There is no cliff
  • Land spot on, within 10% of the answer, for 5 more, whatever you claimed
  • Order counts too. Every pair you put in the right order relative to each other counts, up to 50 for all 10 pairs. Half of them right pays nothing
  • A day is out of 550. Finishing earns Yay; 275 points for Jam, 429 for Cat and 484 for Wow
🎉 Yay🍓 Jam🐱 Cat👑 Wow

Tips

  • Place the one you are surest about first. It gives you something to measure the others against
  • Claim tight on the ones you actually know, hedge wide on the ones you are inventing. Widening is a move, not a failure
  • Read the numbers as you go. The gap between two lanes can be a factor of a thousand and still look small

Where it comes from

Fermi problems, the physicist's habit of estimating a number from what you already know, and calibration tests, which score how sure you are. Ballpark puts the two on one scale.

Missed a day? The archive keeps the last two weeks free, and replays still count toward your streak

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