Scientists at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, have recently  made the fastest spinning object ever made by man. The object is a microscopic sphere made of calcium with a diameter of 4 micro meter. To give you some idea, a human hair is said to be about 50 micrometers wide. Now can you imagine how tiny must the particle be?

Michael Mazilu, a physicist at the University of St. Andrews and his colleagues carried out this experiment where they made this particle spin in vacuum with the help of a laser beam. With no air friction because of vacuum,  there was nothing to slow down the particle. Under such circumstances, the particle achieved a whooping speed of 600 million rotations per minute (rpm) before it broke apart.

Do you know what is an average spinning speed of your washing machine? About 1800 rpm. Can you calculate how many times faster is the fastest spinning particle than your washing machine?