Scientists have now managed to develop a nano-dumbbell, which is now the fastest rotor in the world that has ever been created by the humans. The nano-dumbbell comprises of two combined silica spheres and the rotor is only 0.000007 inches wide. Purdue University's researchers were able to roll this fastest man-made rotor at a staggering speed of 60 billion times per minute.
Along with being an astonishing achievement in itself, scientists are expecting to learn new things of Physics from observing the rotor as well.
"This study has many applications, including material science. We can study the extreme conditions different materials can survive in," explained Tongcang Li, who is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.
In 2008, the fastest spinning rotor could complete 1 million spins per minute. In 2010, a slice of graphene broke that record and achieved 60 million rotations in a minute. After that, in 2013, a sphere with just about one-tenth of that of a human hair managed 600 million rotations in within the same time. Now, this new rotor has aced the race.
The physicists, associated with this study published in Physical Review Letters, believe that this will help them in learning more about vacuum and gravity. Also, they believe that this experiment might open new doors in quantum mechanics.
"People say that there is nothing in vacuum, but in physics, we know it's not really empty. There are a lot of virtual particles which may stay for a short time and then disappear. We want to figure out what's really going on there, and that's why we want to make the most sensitive torsion balance," said Li.
