I recently invited readers to try to guess the total value of the coins in this piggy bank.  I’ll share that data shortly, but I wondered how accurately someone could estimate the total value of the piggy bank if they knew the weight?

So, I weighed my pig.

The full piggy bank weighed out to around 2996 grams.  I took some other weighings to find that a penny weighs approximately 2.7 g; a nickel is approximately 4.9 g; a dime is approximately 2.3 g; and a quarter is approximately 5.6 g.

Armed with this information, how much more accurate might the estimates be?

• Today in Guesstimation
• Coins in the Piggy Bank
• Piggy Bank Estimations

I’m not sure I believe this is the ultimate intelligence test, but this series of mental challenges is [mostly] enjoyable.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19592-take-the-ultimate-intelligence-test/

The “test”, which really seems more like a sophisticated data collection tool for someone doing research in psychology or cognitive science, consists of twelve ‘games’ that test various brain functions, like memory, planning, categorizing, and the like.  They are mostly fun, but be warned:  it can be a fairly taxing process.

It takes around 30 minutes to complete all the tests, and when you are finished (and complete a short survey), your results, and your relative rankings among all test-takers, are displayed for every activity.  In addition, the authors explain what they think each exercise is really testing.

It’s definitely a fun way to waste half-an-hour.  Just make sure you are well-rested!

Today’s exercise in quantitative reasoning:  how much money do you think is contained in this piggy bank?

Here’s a view from the side.  I think this is the pig’s best angle.