SortStack #1635 — 2030-11-30

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. An average human's reaction to a starting gun 252 ms

   Athletics rules treat any sprint start faster than 100 milliseconds as a false start — it's considered humanly impossible to react that quickly.

2. 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.

3. Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' 5.9 min

   Radio executives told Freddie Mercury it was far too long to ever get airplay. It topped the UK charts twice, 16 years apart.

4. New Horizons' journey from Earth to Pluto 9.5 years

   It left Earth as the fastest spacecraft ever launched — and Pluto was demoted from planet status just seven months into the trip.

5. The construction of the Sydney Opera House 14 years

   Planned as a four-year, $7 million project, it took fourteen years and $102 million — and its architect left Australia before it opened, never returning.

6. The time since Neanderthals went extinct 39.9K years

   They never fully vanished: most people outside Africa carry around 2% Neanderthal DNA, influencing skin, immunity, and even sleep patterns.

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