SortStack #487 — 2027-10-09
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- A chameleon's tongue reaching its insect prey 72 ms
Small chameleons have the fastest tongues, accelerating at hundreds of g — proportionally the most powerful movement of any reptile, bird, or mammal.
- Usain Bolt's 100 m world record run 9.6 sec
Bolt ran 9.58 in Berlin 2009, hitting a top speed of 44.7 km/h — faster than the speed limit on many city streets.
- Sunlight travelling from the Sun's surface to Earth 8.3 min
If the Sun vanished right now, we'd keep seeing it — and orbiting it — for another 8 minutes and 20 seconds before noticing anything.
- A tiger's pregnancy 105 days
Cubs are born blind and helpless at around a kilogram — yet within two years they're apex predators ten times their mother's litter weight.
- The Hundred Years' War between England and France 116.6 years
Despite the name, it lasted 116 years (1337-1453), punctuated by long truces — and technically England and France stayed at war on paper even longer.
- The construction of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona (so far) 143.9 years
Begun in 1882 and still unfinished, it only received an official building permit in 2019 — Gaudí said 'my client is not in a hurry'.