SortStack #668 — 2028-04-07

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. One standard LEGO brick, on average $0.10

   LEGO bricks are molded to a tolerance of four thousandths of a millimeter — and bricks made in 1958 still click with bricks made today.

2. A pack of instant ramen noodles $0.40

   In a Japanese poll, instant ramen was voted the country's greatest invention of the twentieth century — beating karaoke and the Walkman.

3. The average used car in the United States $27.5K

   During the pandemic chip shortage, some lightly used cars briefly sold for more than their brand-new equivalents — dealers couldn't get new stock.

4. Instagram, when Facebook bought it $1B

   In 2012 Instagram had 13 employees and zero revenue. The price was widely mocked as insane — it may be the best acquisition in tech history.

5. The largest lottery jackpot ever won, a single-ticket Powerball prize $2B

   The 2022 winner, a California man, took the lump sum of just under a billion dollars — then made headlines buying multiple mansions.

6. WhatsApp, when Facebook bought it $19B

   At the 2014 acquisition, WhatsApp had about 55 employees serving 450 million users — a price of roughly $350 million per employee.

← All puzzles · Play today’s SortStack