SortStack #3574 — 2036-03-22
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- A camera speedlight flash firing at full power 1 ms
At low power settings, flash bursts get even shorter — down to around 1/30,000 of a second, fast enough to freeze a bursting balloon mid-pop.
- The First World War 4.3 years
The armistice was signed at dawn but set for 11 am — nearly 2,700 men died in those final six hours, the last just one minute before peace.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Holy Roman Empire, from Otto the Great to its dissolution 844 years
Voltaire quipped it was 'neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire' — yet it lasted 844 years before Napoleon finished it off in 1806.
- 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.