# SciOly Fermi Practice

4000+ updated fermi problem set

More info

This website is an open source practice test for the Science Olympiad event Fermi Questions. The question bank will be constantly updated throughout the 2023-2024 season.
How does this practice website (and fermi estimation in general) work?
A Fermi question is one where a seemingly impossible-to-calculate answer is estimated. A famous example of a Fermi question is "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?", where there is very little data to use and assumptions must be made. (Scioly Wiki)
This website uses the same answer and points format as outlined in the Science Olympiad rules manual. All answers are written as the closest power of 10. For example, an estimate of 2000 would be written as 3, since 2000 = 2 x 10^3. An estimate of 5000 would be written as 4, since 5000 = 5 x 10^3 with rounding up. Scoring is based on how close your fermi answer is to the actual answer.
5 points for the correct power of ten (Blue)
3 points for difference of 1 (Green)
1 point for difference of 2 (Yellow)
0 points for difference of 3 or more (Red)
How does Question Search option change the UI controls?
Submit - Submits your answer to the question if you put in a number. Initiates question search otherwise.
Question Search - Finds the question based on the attribution (italicized problem credits) you put in the search bar. Right now, the attribution search crieterion must be exact, so copy-pasting is recommended. All invitational attributions follow the same format: TOURNAMENT_NAME YEAR1-YEAR2, #QUESTION_NUMBER
Back/Forward - Go to the previous/next question in the dataset, normal mode is based on order of questions you answered
These changes also apply to key commands (Enter, Left Arrow, Right Arrow)
What are some helpful resources for starting out?
Scioly Wiki is the best place to start
A Brief Introduction to Fermi Questions by Caleb Chiang
For information about the dataset or contributions, visit the GitHub repository here.
For general questions/concerns/issues or for contributing questions contact me on Discord(Username: randomeclipse) or on the SciOly community server #fermi-questions channel

Question: If every bacterium in stool produced by every person on Earth was instead a molecule of gold, how many moles of gold would be produced in a day?

Press button or click enter to submit Use arrow buttons or left/right keys for navigation (only submitted questions)
The original answer was ___
Answer

If this project is helpful to you, please consider giving it a Star