SortStack #648 — 2028-03-18
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- A single wingbeat of a hovering hummingbird 12.6 ms
Up to 80 wingbeats per second lets hummingbirds hover, fly backwards, and even fly upside down — no other bird can do all three.
- 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.
- A single round of professional boxing 3 min
Round length was standardized by the 1867 Queensberry Rules, which also introduced gloves — before that, bare-knuckle rounds ended only with a knockdown.
- A performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 74 min
Legend says the CD was designed to hold 74 minutes specifically so the Ninth would fit on a single disc — a Sony executive's favourite piece.
- A Eurostar train journey from London to Paris 2.3 h
Only about 20 minutes of the trip is actually under the sea — the Channel Tunnel remains the longest undersea rail tunnel in the world.
- A chicken egg's incubation, laying to hatching 21 days
Chicks start cheeping to their mother through the shell a day or two before hatching — and she clucks back to encourage them out.