# What's the fastest we've ever spun anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 19, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638 "2013-08-19T13:57:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/1 "2013-08-19T13:57:51Z")
Small turbochargers can achieve speeds well over 100,000 RPM. Have we ever deliberately spun anything faster than this? By “deliberately,” I am excluding things like a random piece of shrapnel or richocheting bullet that happens to get spun up to very high RPM; I’m thinking of engineered devices being spun in a controlled laboratory setting. How fast do dentist’s drills spin? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/2 "2013-08-19T14:10:15Z")
How fast _can_ something be spun? Is the limiting factor tension to keep the thing from flying apart? Would relativistic effects occur? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/3 "2013-08-19T14:18:41Z")
[How about 60,000,000 rpm?](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19514-levitating-graphene-is-fastestspinning-object-ever.html#.UhIpAkrn9pg) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/4 "2013-08-19T14:32:59Z")
\*\*Czarcasm \*\*has the link I found beat, still, it might be of interest. The fastest rotation rate in the table within [this link](http://www.powermems.be/Pen_setup.html) is 37.98 million RPM. It’s one of [J.W. Beams’](http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/beams-jesse-w.pdf)s magnetically levitated centrifuges in vacuum. A discussion of his research into ultracentrifuges starts at page 11 of the previous link. Oh, and he did this back in the 1930s and 40s. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/5 "2013-08-19T14:38:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [How about 60,000,000 rpm?](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19514-levitating-graphene-is-fastestspinning-object-ever.html#.UhIpAkrn9pg) > [@](#): > > Previously, micrometre-sized crystals have been spun at up to 30,000 rpm using a different technology called an optical trap. It is thanks to graphene’s amazing strength that the flakes are not pulled apart by the much higher spinning rate, Kane says. > > He adds that the graphene flakes are only spinning at a thousandth of their theoretical maximum rate, given graphene’s estimated strength. By tweaking the experimental set-up, a graphene flake could potentially be spun even faster. Imagine spinning something at 60 _billion_ rpm! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/6 "2013-08-19T14:43:20Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [How about 60,000,000 rpm?](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19514-levitating-graphene-is-fastestspinning-object-ever.html#.UhIpAkrn9pg) Yeah, but that’s only 1,000,000 rps. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/7 "2013-08-19T15:58:04Z")
So, assuming a circular flake, a point on the edge of those 1µm-wide graphene flakes will be travelling pi million micrometres per second. That is only about 0.003km per second, or about 7mph, if I haven’t dropped a zero along the way. Forgive me if I’m not too overwhelmed. My bicycle wheel spins three times faster than that every morning. I think a more pertinent question would be: What’s the fastest rotation rate when measured in terms of the speed of the rim of whatever’s being spun? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/8 "2013-08-19T16:19:41Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > …I think a more pertinent question would be: What’s the fastest rotation rate when measured in terms of the speed of the rim of whatever’s being spun? Per [Guinness](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-3000/fastest-rotating-flywheel/), the fastest rotation speed, measured at the tip of the rotor, was in an experimental flywheel at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, on December 9, 1985. It reached 1405 m/s before disintegrating. I don’t know of any centrifuges with a higher tip speed. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/9 "2013-08-19T16:23:31Z")
Back around 1960 when high speed dental drills first appeared, they spun around 20,000 RPM. I don’t know if there is any good reason to go faster. The dentist has to keep control. However, it was a revolution over the old mechanical ones. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/10 "2013-08-19T16:49:40Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Back around 1960 when high speed dental drills first appeared, they spun around 20,000 RPM. I don’t know if there is any good reason to go faster. The dentist has to keep control. However, it was a revolution over the old mechanical ones. Dentist drills spin at over 1,000,000 RPM now. My dentist said he doesn’t like them - they cut too fast, and a tiny slip of the hand can turn into a big mistake (ouch!). ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/11 "2013-08-19T17:13:32Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > However, it was a revolution over the old mechanical ones. That’s a good spin to put on it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/12 "2013-08-19T17:55:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Colophon** : > > …I think a more pertinent question would be: What’s the fastest rotation rate when measured in terms of the speed of the rim of whatever’s being spun? That might depend on what you count as a “thing being spun”. Does a plane flying in a circle count? How about something in orbit? ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/13 "2013-08-19T21:34:52Z")
Large synchrotrons like LHC and RHIC typically accelerate their particle beams to \> 99% the speed of light. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/14 "2013-08-19T22:22:09Z")
Oh, I should also ask if we’re restricting to man-made things, and also just what counts as a “thing”. The surfaces of neutron stars are moving at relativistic speeds, and in so far as a rotational speed can be defined for the surface of a rotating black hole, it’s c or very close to it. ---
**Author:** ![Arthur\_See\_Clarity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@Arthur\_See\_Clarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arthur_See_Clarity)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/15 "2013-08-19T23:10:13Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > Large synchrotrons like LHC and RHIC typically accelerate their particle beams to \> 99% the speed of light. yeah but that’s not really spinning. sure it’s in a loop but i imagine he means a structure that’s connected to its axis of rotation ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/16 "2013-08-19T23:20:40Z")
> [@Arthur\_See\_Clarity](#): > > yeah but that’s not really spinning. sure it’s in a loop but i imagine he means a structure that’s connected to its axis of rotation Yeah, I thought so too, but I figured if people were going to mention satellites and the like I may as well toss that out there. 😉 edit: and it is controlled after all - to an extent that’s hard to appreciate until you start to really look at the scales and time factors being dealt with. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/17 "2013-08-20T00:26:47Z")
Related question: what’s the fastest a human has ever pirouetted (ie, spun about his or her own axis, as opposed to spinning around a chamber in one of those G test thingies)? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/18 "2013-08-20T02:20:16Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Related question: what’s the fastest a human has ever pirouetted (ie, spun about his or her own axis, as opposed to spinning around a chamber in one of those G test thingies)? Per [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQLtcEAG9v0), 308 RPM on ice skates. They claim Guinness noted it, but I haven’t confirmed that. If we mean ballet pirouettes, then [Sophia Lucia completed 55 consecutive pirouettes](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/4000/most-consecutive-pirouettes-contemporary-dance) in March 2013. No info on how fast she was spinning, but I’m sure it was slower than the ice skater… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/19 "2013-08-20T02:44:46Z")
How fast would a diamond have to be spun for it to break apart? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638/20 "2013-08-20T15:22:50Z")
Depends on its size and its shape, and on what standard you’re using to measure “how fast”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-weve-ever-spun-anything/666638.md?page=2)