SortStack #2496 — 2033-04-09

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. One full revolution of a helicopter's main rotor 150 ms

   Main rotors spin at only a few hundred rpm, but the blade tips travel so fast they approach the speed of sound — the source of that thudding chop.

2. The Epsom Derby, Britain's most famous horse race 2.5 min

   Workforce's 2010 record run covered the mile and a half at over 56 km/h — and the race has been run every year since 1780, even through both World Wars.

3. The Cold War 43.9 years

   Historians call it 'the long peace' — the superpowers never fought each other directly, but proxy wars touched nearly every continent.

4. The Hundred Years' War between England and France 116.6 years

   Despite the name, it lasted 116 years (1337-1453), punctuated by long truces — and technically England and France stayed at war on paper even longer.

5. The time since Vesuvius buried Pompeii 1.9K years

   The AD 79 ash preserved loaves of bread still sitting in ovens — one carbonized loaf even bears its baker's stamp.

6. The time humans have lived in Australia 65K years

   Aboriginal Australians' roughly 65,000 years make theirs the oldest continuous culture on Earth — some oral histories describe coastlines drowned by rising seas 10,000 years ago.

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