SortStack #1432 — 2030-05-11

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. 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.

2. A proper hand wash, by WHO guidelines 19.8 sec

   The recommended scrub lasts about as long as singing 'Happy Birthday' twice — most people manage barely a third of it.

3. The elevator ride up the Burj Khalifa's observation deck 1 min

   The lifts climb at around 10 metres per second. Your ears pop on the way to the 124th floor — the building is so tall it has distinct climate zones.

4. The Isner-Mahut match, the longest in tennis history 11.1 h

   The 2010 Wimbledon first-rounder stretched over three days with a 70-68 final set — the scoreboard wasn't programmed to go that high and broke.

5. NASA's Perseverance rover travelling from Earth to Mars 203 days

   The 480-million-km cruise ended with the 'seven minutes of terror' landing — and the rover carried a small helicopter, Ingenuity, strapped to its belly.

6. How long the Parthenon has been standing 2.5K years

   It survived largely intact for over 2,000 years — until 1687, when a Venetian shell hit the gunpowder the Ottomans had stored inside.

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