SortStack #970 — 2029-02-03
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- 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.
- La Tomatina, Spain's giant tomato fight 60 min
Around 120 tonnes of overripe tomatoes are hurled in Buñol each August; a firework marks the end and the streets are hosed down within hours.
- 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.
- The average adult's actual night of sleep 6.8 h
Smartphone-tracking studies put the global average well under the recommended eight hours — and humans sleep less than virtually any other primate.
- One year on Mercury (a full orbit of the Sun) 88 days
Mercury's spin is so slow that a single sunrise-to-sunrise day there lasts about two of its years — you could outwalk its sunset.
- An African elephant's pregnancy 1.8 years
The longest gestation of any land mammal produces a 100 kg calf that can walk within hours — and is looked after by the whole herd.