SortStack #766 — 2028-07-14

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A single steel paperclip $0.02

   Norwegians wore paperclips on their lapels during WWII as a quiet symbol of resistance against the Nazi occupation.

2. 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.

3. A single Powerball lottery ticket $2.00

   The odds of hitting the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million — you are far likelier to be struck by lightning multiple times in your life.

4. A pack of cigarettes in the US, on average $8.00

   Prices vary wildly by state taxes: a pack runs around six dollars in Missouri but can top twelve in New York.

5. An iPhone Pro at launch $999

   The components inside an iPhone cost Apple roughly half the sticker price — the rest covers R&D, software, marketing, and famously healthy margins.

6. 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.

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