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Units and Estimation Sanity Check for an Answer
Prompt
Subject and level: {{SUBJECT_AND_LEVEL}}
The question: {{QUESTION}}
My answer, with units: {{MY_ANSWER}}
Key steps or the formula I used: {{MY_METHOD}}
Check it in three ways:
1. Dimensional analysis: do the units in my formula combine to the units of my answer? Show the unit working.
2. Order of magnitude: make a rough estimate from rounded numbers and everyday knowledge. Is my answer in the right ballpark (within a factor of about 10)? Show your rough arithmetic.
3. Reality check: compare my answer with a familiar real-world quantity. Does it make sense (a person running at 300 m/s doesn't)?
Then give a verdict: plausible, suspicious or almost certainly wrong. If it's suspicious or wrong, tell me the most likely type of error (a unit conversion, a power of ten, a squared term, a calculator mode) without giving the correct answer.
Constraints: label the estimate clearly as an estimate. Don't solve the problem exactly unless I ask after I've rechecked.
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About this prompt
“Units and Estimation Sanity Check for an Answer” is a free prompt for ChatGPT in the Reasoning & Problem-Solving category, 188 words long, added to The Prompt Index on October 28, 2026 by The Prompt Index. Copy it with the button above, paste it into ChatGPT or any other AI chat assistant, and send it.
It has 4 placeholders to fill in first:
{{SUBJECT_AND_LEVEL}}, {{QUESTION}}, {{MY_ANSWER}}, {{MY_METHOD}}.
Use the “Customize this prompt” fields to personalise it before you copy.
Recommended models: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini.
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