Scientists develop world’s fastest man-made spinning object

Scientists have developed world’s fastest rotor, which will help in studying quantum mechanics. The rotor can spin at more than 60 billion revolutions per minute, making it world’s fastest man-made object.  It is more than 100,000 times faster than a high-speed dental drill.

Key Facts

To produce fastest rotor, scientists had synthesized nanoscale dumbbell made from silica and had levitated it in high vacuum using laser. The laser (working in straight line or in circle) when is linear, vibrates dumbbell and when it is circular spins dumbbell spins. Spinning dumbbell functions as rotor, and vibrating dumbbell functions like instrument for measuring tiny forces and torques, known as a torsion balance. The nanodumbbell levitated by optical tweezer in vacuum can vibrate or spin, depending on polarization of tincoming laser.,

Potential Applications

The fastest rotor has many applications, including material science as it can help to survivability of different materials in extreme conditions.  It can also help in learning about vacuum friction and gravity, as understanding these mechanisms is one of essential goal for modern physics. In more advanced version, it can be used to study things like quantum mechanics (fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles) and properties of vacuum.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2018