Guinness Record: Researchers create fastest rotating object

Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have made it to the Guinness Book of World Records after creating the fastest rotating man-made object to date.

Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have made it to the Guinness Book of World Records after creating the fastest rotating man-made object to date.

Researchers at the University of St Andrews managed to spin a tiny sphere of calcium carbonate 600 million revolutions per minute (rpm) using optical tweezers.

Professor Kishan Dholakia, Dr Yoshihiko Arita and Dr Michael Mazilu of the University's School of Physics and Astronomy used optical tweezers to spin the four micrometre diameter particle inside a vacuum chamber.

As the light passed through the sphere the change in polarisation of the light exerted a small torque on the sphere, thus spinning it.

The lack of drag and frictional forces allowed a very high rotation rate to be achieved - 10 million revolutions per second, or 600 million revolutions per minute, before the sphere left the trap (most likely disintegrating).

'This has been an exciting team effort to realise this world record. The result is a major breakthrough in our physics understanding of the light-matter interaction. We are planning new advances and even hope to challenge our own record in the near future,' Dholakia said.

The research was published in journal Nature Communications.