SortStack #1729 — 2031-03-04

By weight · Order from lightest to heaviest.

1. The Hope Diamond 9.1 g

   The famous blue gem glows an eerie red-orange for minutes after exposure to ultraviolet light — a quirk of trace boron inside.

2. A McDonald's Big Mac 220 g

   The Economist uses Big Mac prices to compare currency values worldwide — the famously tongue-in-cheek 'Big Mac Index'.

3. A liter of water 1 kg

   The kilogram was originally defined in the 1790s as the mass of exactly this much water — the tie was only fully broken in 2019.

4. A front-loading washing machine 76 kg

   Much of the heft is a deliberate concrete counterweight — without it, the spin cycle would walk the machine across your floor.

5. A Space Shuttle orbiter, empty on the runway 78 t

   Returning from orbit, the shuttle was a glider with no engines for a second try — every landing had to work the first time.

6. The Golden Gate Bridge 805K t

   Its two main cables contain enough wire to circle the Earth three times, and painting crews never actually finish — they cycle forever.

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