SortStack #623 — 2028-02-22

By weight · Order from lightest to heaviest.

1. An unfed female mosquito 2.5 mg

   After a full blood meal a mosquito can double or even triple her weight — and still fly away with the loot.

2. A brilliant-cut one-carat diamond 200 mg

   The carat unit comes from carob seeds, which ancient gem traders used as counterweights on their balance scales.

3. An adult house mouse 19 g

   Male mice sing ultrasonic courtship songs too high-pitched for humans to hear, with repeated phrases like birdsong.

4. A Space Shuttle orbiter, empty on the runway 78 t

   Returning from orbit, the shuttle was a glider with no engines for a second try — every landing had to work the first time.

5. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, fully fueled on the launch pad 549 t

   More than 95% of that is propellant; the reusable first-stage booster lands weighing almost nothing by comparison.

6. General Sherman, the giant sequoia in California 1.3K t

   Earth's largest single tree by volume is still growing, adding roughly a good-sized ordinary tree's worth of wood every year.

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