SortStack #284 — 2027-03-20

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. The men's 100 m freestyle world record swim 46.4 sec

   Pan Zhanle's 46.40 at Paris 2024 stunned the field — he won by over a second, an eternity in a sprint event decided by fingernails.

2. Cooking a perfect soft-boiled egg 4.5 min

   At high altitude it takes noticeably longer — water boils below 100°C up a mountain, which is why mountaineers complain about their eggs.

3. Alcock and Brown's first nonstop transatlantic flight 16 h

   The 1919 crossing ended nose-first in an Irish bog they mistook for a meadow. Brown had climbed onto the wings mid-flight to chip off ice.

4. The world's longest scheduled flight, Singapore to New York 19 h

   The route covers about 15,300 km. The aircraft is configured with no economy class at all — partly so passengers survive the experience.

5. Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New York to Paris 33.5 h

   Lindbergh went without sleep so long he reported hallucinating ghostly figures in the cockpit somewhere over the Atlantic.

6. 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.

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