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Guess the weight, win a thing!

Today marks the four-year anniversary of Nicola Early joining the Raspberry Pi team. Nicola works as Administrator at Pi Towers and is responsible for so many things that I dare not try to list them all. But among all her tasks, the most important one is the care and maintenance of the office rubber band ball.

Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

The rubber band ball chronicles

Every working day for the last four years, whenever the postman delivers the packs of letters, Nicola has had at least one new rubber band to collect. And so over time, the ball has grown and grown and grown.

Nicola is very protective of the ball, so if you come to her desk in search for a rubber band, you’ll have to withstand her glare as she reluctantly removes one from her expanding collection.

Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

If we are to consider that, in the UK, there are about 261 working days in a year, and Nicola has been working at Pi Towers for four years, it’s fair to estimate the ball consists of at least 1044 bands.

So our question for you is this:

How much does the ball weigh?

Submit your guess in the comments below*, or in the tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram post for this blog, and the closest guess will win a Raspberry Pi T-shirt and, if we can manage it without her noticing, a band from the very ball in question.

Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

To take part, you need to submit your guess in grams by midnight next Monday 17 September. Multiple guesses on the same platform from the same account will be ignored — so behave.

*Members of the Raspberry Pi team may not take part, as there are scales on Nicola’s desk, and I don’t trust any of you.

176 comments

Can my guess be the average (mean) of all the other guesses?

1345g

JAMES PATTERSON?!!!???

603 grams (is it supposed to be in grams?)

428g

587 grams ?

261 grams

592g

285 grams

317gr … ?

1480 grams

350grams

314 grams

2000g

Or maybe 600g

440g

1124 grams

Is this a european or south african banana ;)

american, south american.

Don’t think on the joke while typing. Don’t think…

673 grams

1042 grams.

I discovered that the wikipedia page is fascinating, and Nicola is far from breaking the world record ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_band

920 grams

2496 grams

1208g

152.946 grams

540.69 grams

835.78 grams

grams or pounds?

1.3125 pounds
595.339986 grams

910 grams

Knowing that an average postal elastic band weighs in at 0.75g my guess is too bloody much lol

About 800g to account for there being 2 some days

Teniendo en cuenta que yo tengo en casa una de 200gm y es la mitad de mi mano,la bola que aparece en la mano de la foto…calculo que esta bola,siempre que esta sea la real que aparece en las fotos….es de unos 487gm mas o menos.

790 grams

410g

784g

567 grams

112 grams

580 grams

164 grams

888 g

717 g

I think it is about 1600 grams…
-Nice idea and greetings from Germany :D

215.3 grams

Nicola doesn’t have holidays? 720 gram!

433 Grams

1.047kg (pi/3)

652g

542 grams, maybe :-)

750g

591.93804 grams

1130g

551 grams

262 grams

475g

Does it have a titanium ball at the centre? ;)

I’m going to go for 253g.

286 grammes

1227 grams

1110 grams

37,584g

Nevermind. I suck at math.

591.94 grams

887 g.

567g

500g

265 grams.

1043.26 grams

489g

903.4g

684 grams.

31.28 oz

Probably 31.28 oz

261 grams

480 grams!

86 grams

You go to a stationery “store” not shop yet your name’s ukscone. I bet you speak with an American accent when you come back from a holiday in the states too. [edited by ukscone to remove inappropriate word].

as i’ve been living in the States for about 28 years it’s a blooming long vacation :P

2088g

866g

591.948 grams

1630 grams.

601g

1444g’s

It is obviously 628,318530718 grams!
Cheers

601 grams

1290g

500 grammes

261 grams

261 grams.

765 grams

I would guestimate about 255 grams (g) or .562179 pounds (lbs).

If it isn’t 314.15926535898 grams, then I feel that a disiplinary hearing should be held, and those responsible should face summary execution (or whatever the current penalty is for creating inadmissable ball dimensions).

197.312694 grams

1234 g

160g

666g – is there a pentagram emoji?

I think it is 970 grams.

If this was a repost of my other comment sorry, it wasn’t showing up on the site.

My guess is 294 grams

769 grams or 0.03 Grammas.

I would say 800g.

1353 grams.

378 grams

619 grams

2200 grams I think

777g

i’d say roughly 521g =)

729g based up my own rubber-band ball and banana.

My guess is 698 grams.

412 grams

812 g

1234.56g

If it’s too much, add some rubber bands, please.

2275.92g

798g

zwitscherhacki says:
158g

758g

160 grams

I’d say 2580 grams
No idea how many pounds that is…

In for a penny,

856g

Cheers,
Norm.

My guess: 268g

My guess: 473g

676g

731g

278 grams

196 gm

986g

789.25 grams

288grams ball envy!

327 grams

872g.

(Based on scaling up the mass of the similar ball of PO rubber bands on my desk, and assuming that’s a typical Cavendish banana…!)

380g

1274.676 grams

537g

Are we guessing for the weight before or after the winner’s band is removed?

611 grams

I think it is 270g!

274,05g :p

498 g

687g. So there!

753 g

My guess 1140g.

268g

583.2g

1024g

749.4 grams

987g

590grams

265 grams

I assume a natural rubber (d) density of 0.93 kg/dm^3, a band spherical packing of 75% (p) and Alex? hand as medium sized, giving a ball radius (r) of 5cm.

This leads to an actual rubber volume (V) of 4/3 pi r^3 * p and a weight of V*d.

Given my precise error-free calculation my guess is 392,7g for today, as there is uncertainty on the steadiness of pi: https://physics.illinois.edu/news/article/10665

Cheers