The Verdict

A man arrives at the office in the morning where several of his co-workers are already chatting next to the coffee machine. He listens to them for a bit, then suddenly asks: "How big are penguins?"

The co-workers stare at him for a second, then one of them says: "I don't know, about 50 or 60cm?"

"Huh", the man says, "I thought they were bigger. Aren't there some really big penguins, too?"

They hear a "harrumph" in the back, when another co-worker stands up, walks up to them and says: "Of course there are! Asking how big penguins are in general is absolutely ridiculous! That's like asking how big dogs are. There are about 20 different kinds of penguins and they vary in size massively!"

"Oh, cool!" says the man, "So what about big penguins?"

The co-worker answers: "The King Penguin is very common and well known. A majestic animal. I watched many documentaries about them and their social behavoiur is fascinating! They are about 90cm tall and weigh up to 15kg, but some individual males are known for being a bit over 1 meter tall and weighing as much as 20kg!"

"Oh, wow, that's big!" the man says. The co-workers at the coffee-machine nod. "But, what's, like, the biggest penguin there is, over all?"

The penguin-expert-co-worker thinks for a bit, then says: "It must be the emperor penguin. They are huge. It's not uncommon for males to be as tall as 130cm!"

The co-workers at the coffee machine gasp.

"130cm!? That's insane!" the man says. "But they don't go any bigger than that? That's the absolute limit?"

"Well", the co-worker answers, "I think I heard of an individual being almost 140cm tall. But that's the absolute limit, yes."

"Huh", the man says, "Well, then I guess I did run over a nun on my way here"