Each card in this quiz names something that moves. The board starts with one card already on it. The quiz then gives you one card at a time, and you put each card in the row from the slowest to the fastest.
A correct placement shows the speed and keeps the card on the board. One wrong placement ends the run. You cannot move a card after you place it, so each choice is final.
The row covers more than ten orders of magnitude. A garden snail moves 0.048 km/h. Light moves about 1.08 billion km/h. The ends are easy. The middle is not: a Formula 1 car, a diving falcon, a record train and a jet car all sit within a few hundred km/h of each other.
How to play
The row is sorted by top speed. The slowest card is at one end and the fastest card is at the other end.
One card starts on the board. Its speed is shown.
The quiz gives you one card at a time. Put it in the gap where you think it belongs.
A correct placement shows the speed of the card. The card stays on the board and the quiz gives you the next card.
A wrong placement ends the run. The quiz then shows you the correct gap.
You cannot move a card after you place it.
Your score is the number of cards on the board at the end. The maximum score is 20.
A perfect run places all 20 cards with no mistake.
What counts in this quiz
Each speed is the top speed or the cruise speed for the subject named on the card.
Animal speeds are short bursts. No animal can hold its top speed for long.
Vehicle speeds are the record run or the service maximum, as the card says.
The smallest gap in the set is 360 km/h for a Formula 1 car against 389 km/h for a diving falcon.
What's not included — and why
The quiz compares speed in a straight line. It does not compare acceleration, range or endurance.
Speed records that no governing body has confirmed are not used.
Speeds that people still discuss are not used. The 40 km/h often given for a charging elephant is one of them.
Good to know
The Parker Solar Probe reaches about 692,000 km/h at its closest point to the Sun. It is the fastest object people have built.
You are moving at about 107,000 km/h while you read this. The Earth carries you around the Sun at that speed.
ThrustSSC broke the sound barrier on land in 1997. The record still stands.