Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
45,000
steps
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
An average runner finishes a marathon in about four and a half hours, call it 270 minutes. How often do your feet hit the ground when you jog? About 3 times a second, which is 180 a minute.
- Marathon time
- ≈ 270 min
- Steps a minute
- × 180
- 270 × 180
- ≈ 49,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Average marathon finish time, worldwide (RunRepeat, 2018)
- 4:29:53 ≈ 270 min
- Typical runner's cadence (Garmin's middle band, 164 to 173 a minute)
- × ≈ 165 steps a minute
- 270 × 165
- ≈ 45,000 steps
Reference cited by Fermi: RunRepeat global marathon finish-time study (average 4:29:53 in 2018) and Garmin's running dynamics cadence percentiles
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