About how many kernels are there on an average ear of maize (corn on the cob)?
Try it yourself first
🍜 Food · kernels
Enter an estimate in kernels.
Notepad
End a line with = to calculate it.
Show the answer and the method
Answer
About 800 kernels
An ear almost always has an even number of rows, and every kernel is connected to its own strand of silk.
How to estimate it
Count rows and kernels per row. Look at the end of a cob and you will see about 16 rows running lengthwise. An ear is about 20 cm long and a kernel is about 4 mm wide, so each row holds 200 / 4 = 50 kernels. 16 × 50 = 800 kernels. Agronomists quote the same average, about 800 kernels per ear.
Source: Iowa State University Extension; US National Corn Growers Association
More questions: Food
- Roughly how many tonnes of processed, ready to brew tea are produced around the world in one year?
- Farmers on every continent except Antarctica grow wheat. Roughly how many tonnes are harvested worldwide in a year?
- According to the UN Environment Programme, about how many tonnes of food are thrown away each year by households, shops and restaurants worldwide?
- Chilli heat is rated in Scoville heat units. What rating did Pepper X receive when Guinness certified it as the hottest chilli in the world?
- Counting the water needed to grow the animal's feed, roughly how many litres of water does it take to produce one kilogram of beef?