13 OBJECTS · 4.3 cm TO 109.7 m

Size It Up: Sports

Sports gear is the fairest category on the site: you have held most of these objects. That makes it the best place to calibrate your eye before tackling landmarks, and the best place to discover that a soccer goal is wider than you remember.

The Sports set holds 13 measured objects, from a golf ball at 4.3 cm to an American football field at 109.7 m — the numbers on this page cover a factor of about 2,571. Each one is measured on the axis the game scores: standing height for things you would walk up to, longest visible span for everything else. Every size below links to the published measurement it came from.

THE NUMBERS

How big are these, really?

All 13 objects in the Sports set, smallest to largest. Each rung is compared with the one below it, so the category reads as a single ladder rather than a list of unrelated figures.

4.3 cm

Golf Ball length / span

Golf Ball: A golf ball cannot be smaller than 42.67 mm in diameter. Source ↗

7.6 cm

Hockey Puck length / span

Hockey Puck: A regulation puck is exactly three inches across. About 1.8× the length of a golf ball. Source ↗

21.8 cm

Bowling Ball length / span

Bowling Ball: Every bowling ball is the same width — only the weight changes, from six to sixteen pounds. About 2.9× the length of a hockey puck. Source ↗

24.3 cm

NBA Basketball length / span

NBA Basketball: An NBA ball is regulated by circumference, about 75 cm, which works out to just under 25 cm across. About 1.1× the length of a bowling ball. Source ↗

28 cm

American Football length / span

American Football: An American football is measured along its long axis; the pointed ends make it read larger than it is. About 1.2× the length of an NBA basketball. Source ↗

68.5 cm

Tennis Racket height

Tennis Racket: The rules allow up to 73.7 cm, but almost every player uses something just under 69 cm. Source ↗

86 cm

Baseball Bat length / span

Baseball Bat: A common adult bat is 34 inches long. About 3.1× the length of an American football. Source ↗

1.6 m

Hockey Stick height

Hockey Stick: A stick is fitted to reach between the chin and the nose when the player is standing on skates. About 2.4× the height of a tennis racket. Source ↗

2 m

Surfboard height

Surfboard: A two-metre shortboard is smaller than most people picture — longboards start near three metres. About 1.2× the height of a hockey stick. Source ↗

3 m

Basketball Hoop height

Basketball Hoop: The rim is exactly 10 feet above the floor. About 1.5× the height of a surfboard. Source ↗

7.3 m

Soccer Goal length / span

Soccer Goal: A full-size association football goal is 7.32 metres wide. About 8.5× the length of a baseball bat. Source ↗

50 m

Olympic Swimming Pool length / span

Olympic Swimming Pool: An Olympic pool is exactly 50 metres long. About 6.8× the length of a soccer goal. Source ↗

109.7 m

American Football Field length / span

American Football Field: Goal line to goal line is 100 yards; end zones make the full field 120 yards. About 2.2× the length of an Olympic swimming pool. Source ↗

PLAY IT

Play the Sports set

Reading the numbers is one thing; sizing them by eye against a reference silhouette is another.

The daily puzzle mixes every category, so these objects turn up there at random. For a set built only from them, Unlimited deals five of them at a time, as often as you like. Unlimited is practice: it is unranked and never touches the daily leaderboard. New to the game? How to play covers the rules and the 0–500 scoring in two minutes.

KEEP GOING

Other categories

Every category has its own page of measured sizes. Landmarks and space produce the biggest scale shocks; sports and everyday objects are the fairest places to calibrate your eye.