Fermi Questions C

[coool12]

There was one question asking the price of a ferry trip to the Dry Tortugas islands. I ended up taking that trip last summer. Other than that..... I liked it.

[liutony66]

So what unit are Fermi Questions generally in? (scientific or standard)

[OldSpice]

So what unit are Fermi Questions generally in? (scientific or standard)

I've seen them in both. Sometimes neither. (ie: "How many iPhones would it take to cover the face of Mount Everest?")
It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with everything. Remember that tests can have questions on LITERALLY ANYTHING that has a number for an answer.

[KristenEmily13]

http://fermiquestions.com/#Marathon

This is really nice! I love it, it's prefect practice!
Thanks!!!!
It's hard to find good quick fermi practice online

[zimmy1235]

Does anyone have a good in depth list of units that covers all the normal ones and as many obscure units as possible?

[JustDroobles]

Does anyone have a good in depth list of units that covers all the normal ones and as many obscure units as possible?

These could be good starting points:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:S ... easurement
There also Wikipedia articles for "Units of Length", "Conversion of Units of Temperature", "Orders of magnitude (mass)" and more if you do a little poking around, as well as sections about units in the main articles for "Mass", "Volume", etc. They have an individual article for each unit of measure as well.

Also, if you are going to attempt memorizing a lot of units, keep in mind to only memorize the scale of the units. You don't need to know that there are 5,280 ft in a mile, just around 5x10^3.

[zimmy1235]

Thank you! I have the scientific notation and most units down I'm more just looking for the obscure units because I've been getting hammered by questions on tests about beardseconds, planck lengths, and such so I wanted to go over those and see what other ones there are.

[al3201]

Also, better know A LOT about your state. Got at least 4 points off, from different questions, for forgetting how far Kansas City is from St Louis.

[OSO]

Just curious, what scores do people usually get, e.g. winners? I just rushed through the quizbowl practice test (<15 minutes) and ended up with the seemingly-mediocre score of 64.

[JustDroobles]

Just curious, what scores do people usually get, e.g. winners? I just rushed through the quizbowl practice test (<15 minutes) and ended up with the seemingly-mediocre score of 64.

This is a tough question because every test and competition is different.I would say if you score points on every question, you should be in good shape for a medal. I suppose you should shoot for around 1/3 to be 5s. But again, this is very sensitive to the test, and who you are competing against.

I don't have much personal context since I only competed in this event at state my senior year. I did a test off against my teammates who were doing poorly in Fermi last April so I could replace them for state, and I won with about 90 out of 150. (So an average of 3 points per question) I went on to medal at state with a 6th place out of 48 teams.

EDIT: Let me also add that on any unit conversions or math problems you should be able to get 5 points, on any estimations like "how many whatevers in a football field" you should be able to get 3 points, and on random knowledge questions you should be able to get 1 point.