Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
1,217
T-shirts
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
I think a t-shirt is around half a pound. If we can just take the 480 lb of cotton directly and turn it into the same weight's worth of t-shirts, it would be almost 1,000 t-shirts.
- The bale
- 480 lb
- One t-shirt
- ÷ ½ lb
- 480 × 2
- ≈ 960 t-shirts
I think a t-shirt is around 200 grams, so five to a kilogram. If we can just take the 218 kg of cotton directly and turn it into the same weight's worth of t-shirts, it would be about 1,100 t-shirts.
- The bale
- 218 kg
- Per kg, at 200 g each
- × 5
- 218 × 5
- ≈ 1,090 t-shirts
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- One bale of cotton (National Cotton Council)
- 480 lb
- Men's T-shirts per bale
- 1,217
- Each shirt uses about
- 6.3 oz
- ≈
- 1,217 T-shirts
Reference cited by Fermi: National Cotton Council
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