DAILY NO. 2 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The September 23, 2026 puzzle ran from metropolitan France at 1,000 km to Africa at 8,000 km — about 8× apart, drawing on geography. The pair furthest apart was round 2: Africa is 3× as big as Greenland.
Puzzle #2 asked about metropolitan France, Africa, Italy, Australia and the contiguous United States. Each answer below gives the measured size, the reference it stood beside and the source behind the number. Want the surprise first? Replay this puzzle — archived days never touch your streak.
Answer: Metropolitan France — 1,000 km. Metropolitan France measures 1,000 km (length / span), which is about 1.3× smaller than the reference, Texas at 1,270 km.
Metropolitan France is nicknamed the Hexagon; no side of it runs much beyond 1,000 km.
Common miss: players tend to inflate metropolitan France when it sits beside Texas — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Africa — 8,000 km. Africa measures 8,000 km (height), which is 3× as big as the reference, Greenland at 2,670 km.
Africa spans roughly 8,000 kilometres from north to south.
Common miss: players tend to compress Africa when it sits beside Greenland — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Italy — 1,200 km. Italy measures 1,200 km (height), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, California at 1,240 km.
Italy’s long axis is why the Alps and Sicily belong to the same country.
Common miss: players tend to inflate Italy when it sits beside California — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Australia — 4,000 km. Australia measures 4,000 km (length / span), which is about 1.1× smaller than the reference, the contiguous United States at 4,500 km.
Australia is nearly as wide as the contiguous United States, with a tenth of the population.
Common miss: players tend to inflate Australia when it sits beside the contiguous United States — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Contiguous United States — 4,500 km. The contiguous United States measures 4,500 km (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, Brazil at 4,320 km.
The lower 48 stretch roughly 4,500 kilometres coast to coast.
Common miss: players tend to compress the contiguous United States when it sits beside Brazil — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Sizes are measured along the axis named in each round and link to their published source. Explore the full library by category, or read how scoring works.