SortStack #1740 — 2031-03-15
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- A performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 74 min
Legend says the CD was designed to hold 74 minutes specifically so the Ninth would fit on a single disc — a Sony executive's favourite piece.
- 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.
- The Apollo 11 mission, launch to splashdown 8.1 days
Of the whole voyage, Armstrong and Aldrin spent barely 22 hours on the lunar surface — and only about two and a half walking on it.
- The First World War 4.3 years
The armistice was signed at dawn but set for 11 am — nearly 2,700 men died in those final six hours, the last just one minute before peace.
- The main construction of Notre-Dame de Paris 97 years
The medieval build ran from 1163 to 1260 — yet after the 2019 fire, the cathedral was restored and reopened in just five years.
- One orbit of Pluto around the Sun 247.9 years
Pluto hasn't completed a single orbit since its discovery in 1930 — it won't finish its first 'observed year' until 2178.