SortStack #3497 — 2036-01-05

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. A single wingbeat of a honeybee 4.4 ms

   Bees beat their wings about 230 times per second — that frequency is exactly what produces their signature buzz.

2. A chameleon's tongue reaching its insect prey 72 ms

   Small chameleons have the fastest tongues, accelerating at hundreds of g — proportionally the most powerful movement of any reptile, bird, or mammal.

3. a-ha's 'Take On Me' 3.8 min

   The Norwegian band recorded it three times before it became a hit — the famous pencil-sketch video took 16 weeks of rotoscoping by hand.

4. Half-time in a football (soccer) match 15 min

   The break exists partly thanks to early English schools with different rules — teams switched codes at the interval when playing each other.

5. A frilled shark's pregnancy 3.5 years

   At an estimated three and a half years, it's the longest known gestation of any vertebrate — embryos grow just over a centimetre a month.

6. Roman rule over Britain 366.9 years

   Rome governed Britain for 367 years — longer than the entire history of the United States — before abandoning it to defend Italy.

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