SortStack #753 — 2028-07-01
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 lightning flash from start to finish 198 ms
What looks like one bolt is usually several return strokes in a row, heating the air to around 30,000°C — five times hotter than the Sun's surface.
- A flight from London to New York 8.2 h
Flying west against the jet stream adds about an hour versus the return leg — eastbound flights have surfed the tailwind to under 5 hours.
- Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, official festival period 5 days
Around two million people hit the streets per day, and the samba school parade is a fierce contest judged on dozens of criteria.
- 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.
- The first circumnavigation of the globe (Magellan's expedition) 3 years
Magellan himself never made it — he was killed in the Philippines. Just 18 of the original ~270 crew limped home aboard one remaining ship.