A good tie-breaker has a numeric answer nobody knows exactly and everybody can estimate. That way the closest guess wins and there is nothing to dispute. Never use a knowledge question as a tie-breaker — you will just create a second tie.
Distances and sizes
- How tall is the Eiffel Tower in metres, to its tip? — 330 metres
- How long is the Great Wall of China in kilometres? — About 21,000 km
- How deep is the Mariana Trench in metres? — About 10,935 metres
- How long is the River Nile in kilometres? — About 6,650 km
- How tall is Mount Everest in metres? — 8,849 metres
- How wide is the English Channel at its narrowest, in kilometres? — About 33 km
Numbers and quantities
- How many bones does a newborn baby have? — About 300
- How many languages are spoken in the world today? — Roughly 7,000
- How many keys are on a standard piano? — 88
- How many countries are members of the United Nations? — 193
- How many muscles are in the human body? — About 600
- How many islands make up Indonesia? — More than 17,000
Time and speed
- How many seconds are in a 24-hour day? — 86,400
- How fast does light travel in kilometres per second? — About 300,000
- How long does the Moon take to orbit Earth, in days? — About 27.3 days
- How many heartbeats does an average adult have per day? — About 100,000
- How long is a marathon in metres? — 42,195 metres
- How many days does it take Mars to orbit the Sun? — 687 days
Announce the tie-breaker rule before the quiz starts: closest guess wins, no conferring. Deciding the rule after a tie is how quiz nights turn sour.