Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
1,150
pizza boxes
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
Photos of the tower show eight stacked levels of arches. How tall is one level? A bit more than a normal storey, so call it 20 feet. A 2 inch box means 6 boxes to the foot.
- Levels of arches
- 8
- Height per level
- ≈ 20 ft
- 8 × 20 ft
- ≈ 160 ft
- 6 boxes per foot
- ≈ 960 boxes
Photos of the tower show eight stacked levels of arches. How tall is one level? A bit more than a normal floor, so call it 7 meters. The boxes are 5 centimeters each.
- Levels of arches
- 8
- Height per level
- ≈ 7 m
- 8 × 7 m
- ≈ 5,600 cm
- 5,600 ÷ 5
- ≈ 1,120 boxes
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Tower height (from the foundation)
- 58.36 m
- In inches
- ≈ 2,298 in
- Pizza box height
- ÷ 2 in
- ≈
- 1,150 boxes
Reference cited by Fermi: Opera della Primaziale Pisana, the body that manages the tower
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.