Sorta Game — the daily ordering puzzle
Put the world in order… sorta.
Three quiet rounds, five things each, and one hidden way to arrange them. Trust your instinct and see how close your order comes to the truth.
Sorta Game puzzle #51 · August 30, 2026
Three rounds of five things, each with a hidden scale to sort them by — then one last guess at the theme tying all three together. Here’s what this puzzle asks.
Round 1
Order these energy-producing entities by their typical maximum output (measured in watts), from lowest to highest.
- A surgically implanted cardiac pacemaker
- The diesel backup generators of a major metropolitan hospital
- The Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric plant
- An electric eel delivering a defensive shock
- A hand-cranked emergency weather radio
Round 2
Order these signal or current pathways by their typical physical length, from shortest to longest.
- A microscopic copper trace on a modern computer processor
- The undersea export cable connecting an offshore wind farm to the mainland
- A wired USB desktop computer mouse cord
- A standard heavy-duty outdoor extension cord
- The historic 1858 transatlantic copper telegraph cable
Round 3
Order these active systems by the typical amount of energy they draw in a single 24-hour period (from lowest to highest).
- A residential central air conditioning unit
- A modern tablet computer in active daily use
- The global Bitcoin cryptographic mining network
- A standalone battery-operated carbon monoxide detector
- A massive enclosed commercial shopping mall