SortStack #2258 — 2032-08-14

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 single round of professional boxing 3 min

   Round length was standardized by the 1867 Queensberry Rules, which also introduced gloves — before that, bare-knuckle rounds ended only with a knockdown.

3. Alcock and Brown's first nonstop transatlantic flight 16 h

   The 1919 crossing ended nose-first in an Irish bog they mistook for a meadow. Brown had climbed onto the wings mid-flight to chip off ice.

4. The Apollo 13 mission, launch to splashdown 6 days

   After the oxygen tank exploded, the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat and slingshotted around the Moon — NASA's 'successful failure'.

5. A chicken egg's incubation, laying to hatching 21 days

   Chicks start cheeping to their mother through the shell a day or two before hatching — and she clucks back to encourage them out.

6. 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.

← All puzzles · Play today’s SortStack