SortStack #3231 — 2035-04-14

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. A Venus flytrap snapping shut on a fly 102 ms

   The plant can count: it only snaps after two trigger-hair touches within about 20 seconds, which keeps it from wasting energy on raindrops.

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 main-stage TED talk at its maximum allowed length 18 min

   TED's curator calls it 'long enough to be serious, short enough to hold attention' — even Bill Gates and presidents get cut off at the limit.

4. Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New York to Paris 33.5 h

   Lindbergh went without sleep so long he reported hallucinating ghostly figures in the cockpit somewhere over the Atlantic.

5. A horse's pregnancy 340 days

   Foals can stand within an hour of birth and gallop within a day — a survival feature for a prey animal born on open grassland.

6. The reign of Queen Elizabeth II 70.5 years

   Her 70 years and 214 days saw 15 UK prime ministers, from Churchill to Truss — she appointed the last one two days before she died.

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