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Sorting Five Numbers

published January 24, 2021, updated January 17, 2025

I originally created this puzzle as a round in a quiz I hosted for a few friends in early 2021. Some of the answers were specific in-group knowledge, and others were too easy, so I have edited this puzzle slightly from the original version.

Each round consists of five clues, with each clue corresponding to a number: all numbers within a round are similar in size. Your task is to sort the clues by the number they represent, smallest to largest.

Questions

Round 1

All five numbers are within 1% of the median.

  1. Dystopian 📖
  2. Taylor Swift
  3. UNIX 🐛
  4. 🇬🇧 vs. 🇦🇷
  5. € (Original)

Round 2

All five numbers are within 20% of the median.

  1. Car race, IN
  2. Average time from ☀️ to 🌍 for 💡 (s)
  3. 🌡️ at which paper burns (ºF)
  4. Cards in a casino blackjack shoe
  5. Error: This Clue Not Found

Round 3

All five numbers are within 10% of the median.

  1. White Supremacy
  2. m/mi
  3. Fe Solid to Liquid, ºC
  4. People / Square KM, Vatican City
  5. 🇪🇸 Armada

Round 4

All five numbers are within 25% of the median.

  1. F = C
  2. Elevation of world’s deepest car park (m)
  3. 🇺🇸 External Debt, ‘000$ per capita
  4. PGA WR (72⛳)
  5. 🇿🇦 Latitude Minimum

Answers

Round 1

  1. Dystopian 📖 = A dystopian novel: 1984 by George Orwell
  2. Taylor Swift = 1989, a studio album by Taylor Swift
  3. UNIX 🐛 = Refers to Y2K, a bug in the UNIX operating system scheduled for 2000
  4. 🇬🇧 vs. 🇦🇷 = Britain and Argentina fought in the Falklands War in 1982
  5. € (Original) = The year the Euro became a currency, which was 1999

This makes the order 4, 1, 2, 5, then 3.

Round 2

  1. Car race, IN = The Indy 500, a car race in Indiana
  2. Average time from ☀️ to 🌍 for 💡 (s) = The time for sunlight to reach us is 499 seconds
  3. 🌡️ at which paper burns (ºF) = Paper burns at 451ºF (hence the book Fahrenheit 451)
  4. Error: This Clue Not Found = 404, the HTTP code for “not found”
  5. Cards in a casino blackjack shoe = Eight decks of 52 makes 416 cards in total

This makes the order 4, 5, 3, 2, then 1.

Round 3

  1. White Supremacy = 1488, a dogwhistle meaning the 14 words and 88 for HH / Heil Hitler
  2. m/mi = 1609, the number of metres in a mile
  3. Fe Solid to Liquid, ºC = 1543, the melting point of Iron
  4. People / Square KM, Vatican City = 1684
  5. 🇪🇸 Armada = the Spanish Armada, which launched in 1588

This makes the order 1, 3, 5, 2, then 4.

Round 4

  1. F = C = the temperature at which Fahrenheit and Celcius coincide, or -40º
  2. Elevation of world’s deepest car park (m) = -37 metres at the Sydney Opera House
  3. 🇺🇸 Net External Debt, ‘000$ per capita = -26.5 thousand dollars per person
  4. PGA WR (72⛳) = -31, set by Ernie Els
  5. 🇿🇦 Latitude Minimum = -34.8 degrees at the southernmost point

This makes the order 1, 2, 5, 4, then 3.