SortStack #88 — 2026-09-05

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. A Formula 1 pit stop to change all four tyres 2 sec

   McLaren set the world record at 1.80 seconds in Qatar 2023 — around twenty mechanics working in a window shorter than a heartbeat-and-a-half.

2. Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, official festival period 5 days

   Around two million people hit the streets per day, and the samba school parade is a fierce contest judged on dozens of criteria.

3. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan 29.5 days

   Because it follows the lunar calendar, Ramadan drifts about 11 days earlier each year — cycling through every season over 33 years.

4. An African elephant's pregnancy 1.8 years

   The longest gestation of any land mammal produces a 100 kg calf that can walk within hours — and is looked after by the whole herd.

5. The Western Roman Empire, from Augustus to its fall 501.9 years

   After the West fell in AD 476, the Eastern half carried on for nearly a thousand more years as the Byzantine Empire.

6. The time humans have lived in Australia 65K years

   Aboriginal Australians' roughly 65,000 years make theirs the oldest continuous culture on Earth — some oral histories describe coastlines drowned by rising seas 10,000 years ago.

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