# Fastest rpm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198 "2006-12-14T22:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Niceotope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Niceotope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niceotope)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/1 "2006-12-14T22:41:07Z")
What machine or object achieves the highest number of revolutions per minute? A dentist’s drill? A nuclear processing centrifuge? Some sub-atomic particle? Would love to know… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/2 "2006-12-14T23:13:53Z")
[Beckman Ultracentrifuges](http://www.gmi-inc.com/Genlab/beckman%20LE%2080%20ultracentrifuge.html) are pretty quick. Running at up to 100,000 rpm, they’ll spin your samples at 802,400 gravities. Some uranium enrichment centrifuges spin that fast, but they more typically operate in the 50,000 to 70,000 rpm range. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/3 "2006-12-14T23:21:47Z")
Bullets get right up there, too. Some of them can easily exceed 100,000 RPM. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/4 "2006-12-14T23:29:32Z")
According to [this page](http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2005-02-25-wonderquest_x.htm), the fastest spinning man-made object is the Turbo Carver II drill (made by Cyber Woodworking Depot in Holyoke, Massachusetts), which can get up to 450,000 rpm. Apparently, the typical speed for a dentist’s drill is about 300,000 rpm. The article also discusses micro polysilicon gears that run at about the same speed. Personally, i’m more impressed by [this pulsar](http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2006/mspulsar/), which is 20 miles in diameter, and still spins at over 42,000 rpm. That’s some serious angular velocity at the star’s surface. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/5 "2006-12-14T23:30:31Z")
[QUOTE=Niceotope] What machine or object achieves the highest number of revolutions per minute? A dentist’s drill? A nuclear processing centrifuge? Some sub-atomic particle? Would love to know… [/QUOTE] I’m no cosmologist, but I believe the event horizon of a ‘maximal Kerr’ black hole rotates at the speed of light, which is the upper limit on speed of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/6 "2006-12-14T23:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=daffyduck] I’m no cosmologist, but I believe the event horizon of a ‘maximal Kerr’ black hole rotates at the speed of light, which is the upper limit on speed of any kind. [/QUOTE] Just to nitpick, that’s a linear measure of distance. The horizon could have an equatorial circumference of 1ly, in which case it would only spin at 1 revolution per year (~0.000002 rpm). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/7 "2006-12-14T23:38:53Z")
Dentist’s drills can achieve over 800,000 RPM according to the wiki entry: > **[Dental drill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_drill)** > > A dental drill or dental handpiece is a hand-held, mechanical instrument used to perform a variety of common dental procedures, including removing decay, polishing fillings, performing cosmetic dentistry, and altering prostheses. > The handpiece itself consists of internal mechanical components that initiate a rotational force and provide power to the cutting instrument, usually a dental burr. The type of apparatus used clinically will vary depending on the required function dictated by the dental... That may be the fastest spinning artifact you will encounter in everyday life. For exotic things, experimental motor bearings: > **[LSRO – Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques](https://archiveweb.epfl.ch/lsro.epfl.ch/)** > [@](#): > > Actually, the record of rotational speed has been reached already in 1946 by Jesse Beams with a magnetically suspended steel sphere spinning at over **20 million rpm** before bursting under the influence of the centrifugal field. The experiment was done with a 0.8 mm diameter solid steel ball in vacuum. Probably translated from French. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/8 "2006-12-14T23:42:20Z")
[These guys](http://www.powerballs.com/) claim to have the _fastest human propelled device ever created!_ ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-rpm/384198/9 "2006-12-14T23:50:26Z")
If you include man made vorticies then 1,000,000 rpm + is possible. These articles are of interest [Vortex tube - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube) , and [Gyroscope.com - gyroscopes, educational toys and gadgets](http://www.gyroscope.com/d.asp?product=VORTEXTUBE) or look up some of the more achedemic cites on “Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube”