SortStack #3259 — 2035-05-12

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. James Cameron's film 'Titanic' 3.2 h

   The movie runs longer than the actual sinking it depicts — the real ship went down faster than you can watch it go down.

2. A flight from London to New York 8.2 h

   Flying west against the jet stream adds about an hour versus the return leg — eastbound flights have surfed the tailwind to under 5 hours.

3. An average swim across the English Channel 13.5 h

   Fewer people have swum the Channel than have climbed Everest — and rules forbid wetsuits, allowing only goggles, a cap, and grease.

4. One year on Mercury (a full orbit of the Sun) 88 days

   Mercury's spin is so slow that a single sunrise-to-sunrise day there lasts about two of its years — you could outwalk its sunset.

5. The construction of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona (so far) 143.9 years

   Begun in 1882 and still unfinished, it only received an official building permit in 2019 — Gaudí said 'my client is not in a hurry'.

6. Ancient Egyptian civilization, from unification to Cleopatra 3.1K years

   It ran so long that Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid.

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