Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
1,700
olives
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
An olive weighs about 3 grams. How much of it is oil? Only a fifth or so, which is well under a gram each. A liter of oil weighs roughly 900 grams.
- Oil per olive
- ≈ 0.6 g
- A liter of oil weighs
- ≈ 900 g
- 900 ÷ 0.6
- ≈ 1,500 olives
An olive weighs about a tenth of an ounce. How much of it is oil? Only a fifth or so, so about 0.02 ounces each. The bottle holds 34 ounces, near enough 32 of oil.
- Oil per olive
- ≈ 0.02 oz
- Oil in the bottle
- ≈ 32 oz
- 32 ÷ 0.02
- ≈ 1,600 olives
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Olives pressed per liter of oil
- ≈ 5 kg (11 lb)
- One olive weighs
- ≈ 3 g
- 5,000 g ÷ 3 g
- ≈ 1,700 olives
Reference cited by Fermi: International Olive Council production costs study, which puts average mill yield near 18%
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