Scientists from the University of Maryland in College Park has created a spinning graphene disk that is the fastest spinning object ever: 60 million rotations per minute. The scientists sprayed charged graphene flakes a micrometer wide into a vacuum chamber. Once there, oscillating electric fields trapped the flakes in mid-air. They then set them spinning using a light beam that is circularly polarize, meaning it passes its momentum to objects in its path. As a result, the flakes started spinning.
They actually aid that this is only about a thousandth of Graphene's theoretical maximum rate - at least the Graphene is strong enough for such speeds.
Posted: Oct 01,2010 by Ron Mertens