SortStack #3028 — 2034-09-23

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. One heartbeat of a hummingbird in flight 48 ms

   Hummingbird hearts can hit 1,260 beats per minute in flight, then crash to about 50 at night when the bird enters a hibernation-like torpor.

2. A lightning flash from start to finish 198 ms

   What looks like one bolt is usually several return strokes in a row, heating the air to around 30,000°C — five times hotter than the Sun's surface.

3. A dentist-approved tooth brushing session 2 min

   Studies show most people actually brush for about 45 seconds while believing they've done the full recommended time.

4. Sunlight travelling from the Sun's surface to Earth 8.3 min

   If the Sun vanished right now, we'd keep seeing it — and orbiting it — for another 8 minutes and 20 seconds before noticing anything.

5. The Titanic's sinking, from iceberg to going under 2.7 h

   The ship's band famously kept playing on deck for most of it — and the iceberg itself had likely calved from a Greenland glacier years earlier.

6. 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.

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