The highest temperature in the world right now. What is the coldest temperature in the Universe?

The science

Temperature is one of the fundamental concepts in physics; it plays a huge role in concerns earthly life of all forms. At very high or very low temperatures ah, different things can behave very strangely. We invite you to learn about a number of interesting facts related to temperatures.

What is the highest temperature?

The most heat, which was created by man, made up 4 billion degrees Celsius. It's hard to believe that the temperature of a substance can reach such incredible levels! This temperature 250 times higher temperature of the Sun's core.

An incredible record was set in Brookhaven Natural Laboratory in New York at the ion collider RHIC, the length of which is about 4 kilometers.

Scientists forced gold ions to collide in an attempt to reproduce conditions of the Big Bang, creating quark-gluon plasma. In this state, the particles that make up the nuclei of atoms—protons and neutrons—break apart, resulting in a “soup” of constituent quarks.

Extreme Temperatures in the Solar System

The temperature of the environment in the solar system is different from what we are used to on Earth. Our star, the Sun, is incredibly hot. At its center the temperature is about 15 million Kelvin, and the surface of the Sun has a temperature of only about 5700 Kelvin.

Temperature at the core of our planet is approximately the same as the surface temperature of the Sun. Hottest planet solar system– Jupiter, whose core temperature 5 times higher than the surface temperature of the Sun.

The most cold temperature in our system is recorded on the Moon: in some craters in the shadow the temperature is only 30 Kelvin above absolute zero. This temperature is lower than the temperature of Pluto!

Temperature of the human environment

Some peoples live in very extreme conditions And unusual places, not entirely convenient for life. For example, some of the coldest settlements – the village of Oymyakon and the city of Verkhnoyansk in Yakutia, Russia. The average winter temperature here is minus 45 degrees Celsius.

The coldest is more Big City is also located in Siberia - Yakutsk with a population of about 270 thousand people. The temperature there in winter is also about minus 45 degrees, but in summer it can rise up to 30 degrees!

The tallest average annual temperature was spotted in the abandoned city Dallol, Ethiopia. In the 1960s, the average temperature was recorded here - 34 degrees Celsius above zero. Among large cities, the city is considered the hottest Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, where average temperature is also in March-May about 34 degrees.

The most extreme temperatures where people work are seen in gold mines Mponeng V South Africa. The temperature at about 3 kilometers underground is plus 65 degrees Celsius. Measures are taken to cool the mines, such as using ice or insulating wall coverings, so miners can work without overheating.

What is the coldest temperature?

Trying to get lowest temperature, scientists were faced with a number of important things for science. Man has managed to obtain the coldest things in the Universe, which are much colder than any thing created by nature and the cosmos.

Freezing allows the temperature to drop to several milliKelvins. The lowest temperature that has been achieved under artificial conditions is 100 picoKelvin or 0.0000000001 K. To achieve this temperature, it is necessary to use magnetic cooling. Also, such low temperatures can be achieved using lasers.

At these temperatures, the material behaves completely differently than under normal conditions.

What is the temperature in space?

If, for example, you take a thermometer into outer space and leave it there for a while in a place far from a source of radiation, you may notice that it shows the temperature 2.73 Kelvin or so minus 270 degrees Celsius. This is the lowest natural temperature in the Universe.

Temperature stays the same in space above absolute zero due to the radiation that remained after the Big Bang. Although space is very cold by our standards, it is interesting to note that one of the the most important problems that astronauts encounter in space is heat.

The bare metal from which objects in orbit are made can heat up to 260 degrees Celsius due to free sun rays. To lower the temperature of ships, they need to be wrapped in a special material that can only lower the temperature by 2 times.

The temperature of outer space, however, constantly falling. Theories about this have been around for a long time, but only recent measurements have confirmed that the Universe is cooling by about by 1 degree every 3 billion years.

The temperature of space will approach absolute zero, but will never reach it. Temperature on Earth does not depend on the temperature that exists in space today, and we know that our planet Lately gradually warms up.

What is caloric?

Warm – mechanical property material. The hotter an object, the more energy its particles have while moving. Atoms of substances in a hot solid state they vibrate faster than atoms of the same but cooled substances.

Will the substance remain in liquid or gaseous state depends on to what temperature should it be heated?. Today, any schoolchild knows about this, but until the 19th century, scientists believed that heat itself was a substance - weightless fluid, named caloric.

Scientists believed that this fluid evaporated from the warm material, thereby cooling it. It can flow from hot objects to cold ones. Many predictions based on this theory are actually correct. Despite misconceptions about heat, many have actually been made correct conclusions and scientific discoveries . The caloric theory was finally defeated at the end of the 19th century.

Is there a highest temperature?

Absolute zero- a temperature below which it is impossible to fall. What is the highest possible temperature? Science cannot yet answer this question accurately.

The highest temperature is called Planck temperature. This is exactly the temperature that existed in the Universe at the moment of the Big Bang, according to ideas modern science. This temperature is 10^32 Kelvin.

For comparison: if you can imagine, this temperature billions of times higher than the highest temperature, obtained artificially by man, which was mentioned earlier.

According to standard model, The Planck temperature still remains the highest possible temperature. If there is something even hotter, then the laws of physics we are used to will stop working.

There are suggestions that the temperature may rise even higher than this level, but science cannot explain what will happen in this case. In our model of reality, anything hotter cannot exist. Maybe reality will become different?

Summer is coming to an end, and many regions of our country have once again remembered what heat is, because in some cities and regions the thermometer has more than once risen above the normal temperature mark. But in comparison with individual regions of our planet, even the highest temperature indicators, recorded in most cities, simply fade.

There are a number of places that are considered the hottest on our planet. Many of them are so remote and unbearable for life (for example, the Dashte-Lut desert) that even the operation of a weather station there is impossible. To get more accurate temperature data from different parts of the globe, NASA launched two satellites and has been monitoring the Earth's surface temperature for the past 12 years using a medium-resolution scanning spectroradiometer. Thus, scientists were able to obtain the missing data.

Most places have some similar features, such as the absence of any vegetation due to extremely low air humidity. In addition, all recorded hot areas are located low above sea level, exposed to direct sunlight. After getting acquainted with the temperature data, it is hard to believe that the existence of any life forms there is even possible. And although it is quite difficult to talk about the absolute leader, we can still highlight the 13 hottest places on our planet.

Dallol, Ethiopia

Dallol is a former mining settlement located in a volcanically active region called the Afar Basin in Ethiopia. Now Dallol is a ghost town. In the 60s of the 20th century, when the city was still inhabited, the highest average annual temperature on Earth was recorded here - about 35°C.

Coober Pedy, Australia

The temperature here may not be as high as in other similar regions - it is unbearable enough to drive an entire city underground. Coober Pedy is a living city and is one of the centers for Opal mining, but from above you will only see how many buildings there are - the entire city has moved underground. This decision was made to escape the sweltering heat, which can reach 45°C in the shade, not to mention the regular sandstorms.

Al Azizia, Libya

Occupying a third of the Arabian Peninsula, the Rub al Khali Desert is one of the largest deserts in the world. Temperatures can reach 56 °C, and the average annual precipitation is 30 cm.

Death Valley, USA

Death Valley is widely known as one of the driest and hottest places on Earth. In July 1913, the highest temperature at that time was recorded here: 56.6 °C. Located in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley is the driest and hottest place in North America.

Fire Mountain, Tien Shan, China

This mountain range is located in the Taklamakan Desert and is part of the Tien Shan mountain range. This sandstone mountain range is known as the hottest point in China. The highest temperature recorded by a NASA satellite on the mountain range is 66.6 °C.

Queensland, Australia

Despite the fact that register exact temperature This region is not easy to live in due to its uneven population and is known for its hot climate, especially during periods of drought. So, in 2003, a NASA satellite recorded an incredibly high temperature there - 68.8 ° C.

Dasht-Lut, Iran

Stretching for more than 300 kilometers, the deserted and lifeless desert of Dasht-Lut turned out to be the hottest point globe. This sandy-salt desert is lifeless in the truest sense of the word - even bacteria cannot survive here. For all five years, while the NASA satellite studied the temperature background of our planet, it was here that the highest values ​​were recorded - 70.7 ° C.

The lowest temperature on Earth ever recorded was -89.2 degrees Celsius at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. The previous world record minimum of -88.3 °C from August 24, 1960 at the same Vostok station was broken.

Vostok station

Vostok is a Russian research laboratory located in the middle part of the East Antarctic glacier, approximately 1,300 kilometers from the geographic South Pole.

This is a place where the sun does not rise in winter. Apart from the fact that it is very far away South Pole, it is also a high-altitude station at 3,420 m where the lowest temperature on Earth is recorded.

The conditions that caused the heat concept to drop to the exceptionally low Vostok level in July 1983 were clear clouds accompanied by calm air. Vertical air mixing was minimal and there was no wind for some time.

The Vostok station is not a deviation of the Antarctic climate regime. On July 20, 1968, the temperature at another altitude of the research base, Plateau Laboratory, dropped to -86.2 °C.

Looking for the lowest temperature

The so-called heating at the Vostok station is the lowest in the world after observations since 1912. It's likely that it was even colder somewhere on Earth, but there simply wasn't the equipment at the time to make proper measurements. After all, not many people are in the most harsh conditions on the ground.

But recently scientists have found weather station, where they believe it gets even colder there than at Vostok station.

In general, a combination of weather and local geography causes extreme cold. The most cold weather formed when clear sky and calm air. Geographically, the coldest temperatures occur near the poles and away from the oceans. The plateaus of East Antarctica, East and Central Siberia and Central Greenland offer such conditions.

It also gets colder at higher elevations. So a few years ago, scientists in East Antarctica climbed up in search of the minimum degree of heating, which would allow them to break the minimum record. The Argus dome is the most high point on the continent (4093 m) 664 meters higher above the “East” point, high enough to be noticeably colder. The Dome has calm air and clear skies, so necessary for extreme cold.

In 2005, Chinese and Australian scientists created an automatic weather station on the dome to measure daily values. During the first five years of operation, the coldest temperature recorded there was -82.5 °C in July 2005, not low enough to set a new record.

Remote sensing by NASA satellites from 2003 to 2013 measured surface values ​​in the immediate vicinity of the dome, detected on August 10, 2010 where it was -93.2 °C. Once again, almost as cold -93.0 °C was recorded on July 13, 2013. The coldest temperatures were found in small depressions in the icy landscape where cold air collects.

When these extreme values ​​are declared, the record is not recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as an extreme weather and climate event. International Committee, which tests extreme weather do not consider the value measured using remote sensing as official reports.

So, the record of the Vostok station in Antarctica, which was measured using standard equipment and methods, still stands as the official lowest temperature on Earth - 89.2 degrees Celsius

Lowest temperature in Russia

Outside of Antarctica, Russia presents the coldest temperatures in the world. Lows of -67.7°C were measured in Verkhoyansk, Russia on two days, February 5 and 7 in 1992, and in Oymyakon, Russia on February 6, 1933. Both places lie in a remote area Eastern Siberia. Unofficial reports from the area claim that even lower temperatures, as low as -77.8°C, have been reached.

What is especially striking about Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon is that, unlike other places with the lowest temperatures in the world, these are not modern research stations, but century-old villages with several hundred permanent residents. Lowest temperature in Russia recorded in these villages.

Coldest temperature in the Western Hemisphere

On the other side of the globe, in the Western Hemisphere, the lowest air temperature was recorded in Greenland. In the Arctic Ocean at a research station, scientists from the British expedition recorded in the ice in northern Greenland minimum value-66.1 °C January 9, 1954. In just two winters from 1952 to 1954, it was recorded in the Arctic Ocean that dropped below -59.4 °C for 16 days.

• The lowest temperature on Earth officially recorded

• Vostok Station, Antarctica -89.2 °C - July 21, 1983
• Vostok Station, Antarctica -88.3 °C - August 24, 1960
• Plateau Station, Antarctica -86.2 °C - July 20, 1968
• Argus Dome, Antarctica -82.5 °C - July 12, 2005
• Verkhoyansk, Russia -67.8 °C - February 5, 1892
• Verkhoyansk, Russia -67.8 °C - February 7, 1892
• Oymyakon, Russia -67.8 °C - February 6, 1933
• Northern Arctic Ocean, Greenland -66.1 °C - January 9, 1954

Temperature may vary. And high degrees occur not only in some place on Earth, but also in a specific person or in a specific device.

Experts say that the highest average annual temperature recorded for six years (from 1960 to 1966) was recorded in Dallol, Ethiopia. Then thermometers showed plus 34.4 degrees Celsius. The volcanic crater Dallol, however, is famous for the fact that it is practically all year round the air temperature remains at the same level, approximately plus 34 degrees. The crater is located 48 meters below the sea level, its diameter reaches almost one and a half meters. This place has another name - “the gates of hell.” It is quite difficult to stay here for a long time. However, there are indigenous people here. The local Tribes people are distinguished by their taciturnity and aggressiveness.

But in the American Death Valley, for 43 days in a row (this is from July 6 to August 17, 1917), the air warmed up to plus 48.9 degrees Celsius.

Death Valley

In Western Australia, namely in Marble Bar, the average temperature was higher than plus 32.2 degrees Celsius. And this lasted exactly 162 days in a row from October 30, 1923 until April 8, 1924. At the same time, the maximum temperature was plus 48.9 degrees Celsius.

The highest temperature on Earth, plus 58 degrees (and this is in the shade!) was recorded in the Libyan place of Al-Aziziya. It is located at an altitude of 11 meters at sea level. The record was recorded on September 13, 1922. On the same day in Saudi Arabia thermometers showed plus 58.4 degrees. The difference in readings is not so significant; it can be compared with the measurement error. Therefore, two places are considered the hottest in the world, that is, they have the highest temperatures.

Lunch without fire

Already in the new century, records continued. In the Libyan desert of Dashti Lut in 2005, experts noted that thermometers showed plus 70 degrees Celsius. To date, this is the highest temperature that has been recorded in the natural environment.

In such weather, a person can safely cook food without using fire. At plus 70, objects heat up under the sun so much that, for example, a car hood turns into a heated frying pan. And you can easily cook yourself first-class scrambled eggs with it. However, in such heat it is impossible to walk barefoot on the ground. In the shade the air warms up to plus 60 degrees.

And even despite such sultry weather, streams of tourists constantly flock to the Dashti-Lut desert. This place, in addition to its record temperature, famous for its high dunes. They can reach half a kilometer in height.

Hot stars

It turns out that the stars also glow with heat. The temperature of the substance in their depths is measured in millions of Kelvin. And the energy of almost all luminaries is released after thermonuclear reactions converting hydrogen into helium. The process occurs in internal regions at high temperatures. In the depths of stars, temperatures can reach 10-12 million degrees Kelvin.

Artificial temperature

Well, the highest temperature that man could create is about 10 trillion degrees Kelvin. For comparison, such heat was supposed to exist during the creation of the Universe. A record degree was obtained in 2010 at the Large Hadron Collider during the collision of lead ions, which were accelerated to near-light speeds.

However, this is not the only record artificial temperature in the world. American physicists have managed to achieve enormous temperatures in laboratory conditions since the creation of the Universe. This was done by colliding gold ions at Brookhaven National Laboratory. During the experiment, gold ions collided in a collider. Scientists have obtained quark-gluon plasma (after Big Bang The universe consisted of a similar quark-gluon plasma for a few microseconds) with a temperature of approximately 4 trillion degrees Celsius. She only lasted a few milliseconds. But this time was enough to obtain data for research for several years.

For comparison, the temperature of the Sun's core is 50 million degrees, and that of a neutron star that formed after a type 2 supernova explosion is about 100 billion degrees Celsius. It turns out that the resulting substance has a temperature tens of thousands of times higher.

These studies, scientists say, make it possible to understand the processes that took place at the early stage of space development. And as a result, physicists plan to get closer to understanding why matter emerged from a homogeneous primordial mass.

Theoretically, the highest temperature is the Planck temperature. Temperatures above this simply cannot exist, since everything will be converted into energy. The record Planck temperature is approximately 1.41679(11)×1032 K (this is approximately 142 nonillion Kelvin).

The Large Hadron Collider

Previously, the highest temperature in the world was considered to be 520 million degrees Celsius. This is 30 times higher than the temperature at the center of the Sun. This figure was obtained on May 27, 1994 at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the Tokamak experimental reactor.

Man and cat...

The highest temperature that has been recorded in a person is 46.5 degrees Celsius. Theoretically, such heat is fatal. However, a 52-year-old man with such a thermometer reading was cured. This was done by doctors at the American Grady Memorial Hospital, in the state of Georgia. The record was recorded in the summer of 1980 and was included in the Guinness Book of Records. After a 24-day course of treatment, the man was discharged from the hospital. Theoretically, a temperature of 42ºС - 43ºС is lethal for humans, since it is at this temperature that proteins coagulate and metabolism in brain tissue is disrupted.

In animals normal temperature body exceeds the usual human 36.6 degrees. And among the record holders for thermometer readings is chicken. Her body temperature can rise to 42 degrees. Much higher temperature lizard body. In the sun it is 50-60 degrees. And this despite the fact that experts classify lizards as cold-blooded. Well, the most warm-blooded are birds. For their body, the norm is 42 degrees. The need for high temperature is explained quite simply - flight requires birds to have a high metabolic efficiency.
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It was obtained at the center of a thermonuclear bomb explosion - about 300...400 million°C. Maximum temperature, achieved during a controlled thermonuclear reaction at the TOKAMAK thermonuclear test facility at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, USA, in June 1986, is 200 million °C.

Lowest temperature

Absolute zero on the Kelvin scale (0 K) corresponds to –273.15° Celsius or –459.67° Fahrenheit. The lowest temperature, 2 10 –9 K (two-billionth of a degree) above absolute zero, was achieved in a two-stage nuclear demagnetization cryostat at the Helsinki Low Temperature Laboratory University of Technology, Finland, by a group of scientists led by Professor Olli Lounasmaa (b. 1930), which was announced in October 1989.

The smallest thermometer

Dr. Frederick Sachs, biophysicist from State University of New York State, Buffalo, USA, constructed a microthermometer to measure the temperature of individual living cells. The diameter of the thermometer tip is 1 micron, i.e. 1/50th the diameter of a human hair.

The largest barometer

The 12 m high water barometer was constructed in 1987 by Bert Bolle, curator of the Barometer Museum in Martensdijk, the Netherlands, where it is installed.

The greatest pressure

As reported in June 1978, the highest continuous pressure of 1.70 megabar (170 GPa) was obtained at the Carnegie Institution Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, USA, in a giant diamond-coated hydraulic press. It was also announced that in this laboratory on March 2, 1979, solid hydrogen was obtained under a pressure of 57 kilobars. Metallic hydrogen is expected to be a silvery-white metal with a density of 1.1 g/cm 3 . According to calculations by physicists G.K. Mao and P.M. Bella, this experiment at 25°C will require a pressure of 1 megabar.

In the USA, as reported in 1958, using dynamic methods with impact speeds of about 29 thousand km/h, an instantaneous pressure of 75 million atm was obtained. (7 thousand GPa).

Highest speed

In August 1980, it was reported that a plastic disk was accelerated to a speed of 150 km/s at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, USA. This maximum speed, with which a solid visible object has ever moved.

The most accurate scales

The most accurate scales in the world - "Sartorius-4108" - were manufactured in Göttingen, Germany, they can weigh objects up to 0.5 g with an accuracy of 0.01 mcg, or 0.00000001 g, which corresponds to approximately 1/60 of the weight printing ink wasted on the period at the end of this sentence.

The largest bubble chamber

The world's largest bubble chamber, costing $7 million, was built in October 1973 in Weston, Illinois, USA. It has a diameter of 4.57 m, holds 33 thousand liters of liquid hydrogen at a temperature of –247 ° C and is equipped with a superconducting magnet that creates a field of 3 Tesla.

The fastest centrifuge

The ultracentrifuge was invented by Theodor Svedberg (1884...1971), Sweden, in 1923.

The highest rotation speed achieved by a person is 7250 km/h. At this speed, a 15.2 cm conical carbon fiber rod was reported to be rotating in a vacuum on January 24, 1975, at the University of Birmingham, UK.

The most accurate section

As reported in June 1983, a high-precision diamond lathe at the National Laboratory. Lawrence in Livermore, California, USA, can cut a human hair lengthwise 3 thousand times. The cost of the machine is 13 million dollars.

The most powerful electric current

The most powerful electric current was generated at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico, USA. With the simultaneous discharge of 4032 capacitors, combined into a Zeus supercapacitor, within a few microseconds they produce twice the electric current than that generated by all power plants Earth.

The hottest flame

The hottest flame is produced by the combustion of carbon subnitride (C 4 N 2), which produces at 1 atm. temperature 5261 K.

Highest measured frequency

The highest frequency perceived by the naked eye is the oscillation frequency of yellow-green light, equal to 520.206 808 5 terahertz (1 terahertz - million million hertz), corresponding to the 17 - 1 P(62) transition line of iodine-127.

The highest frequency measured by the instruments is the green light frequency of 582.491703 THz for the b 21 component of the R(15) 43 – 0 transition line of iodine-127. The decision of the General Conference of Weights and Measures, adopted on October 20, 1983, to accurately express the meter (m) using the speed of light ( c) it is established that “a meter is the path traveled by light in a vacuum in a time interval equal to 1/299792458 of a second.” As a result, the frequency ( f) and wavelength (λ) turn out to be related by the dependence f·λ = c.

The weakest friction

Lowest coefficient of dynamic and static friction for solid(0.02) has polytetrafluoroethylene (C 2 F 4n), called PTFE. It is equal to friction wet ice o wet ice. This substance was first obtained in sufficient quantity by the American company E.I. Dupont de Nemours" in 1943 and was exported from the USA under the name "Teflon". American and Western European housewives love pots and pans with non-stick Teflon coating.

In a centrifuge at the University of Virginia, USA, in a vacuum of 10–6 mm mercury the supported one rotates at a speed of 1000 rps magnetic field rotor weighing 13.6 kg. It only loses 1 rps per day and will spin for many years.

Smallest hole

A hole with a diameter of 40 angstroms (4·10 –6 mm) was observed on a JEM 100C electron microscope using a device from Quantel Electronics in the Department of Metallurgy at the University of Oxford, UK, on ​​October 28, 1979. Finding such a hole is like finding the head of a pin in haystack with sides 1.93 km.

In May 1983, the beam electron microscope at the University of Illinois, USA, accidentally burned a hole with a diameter of 2·10–9 m in a sample of sodium beta aluminate.

The most powerful laser beams

For the first time, it was possible to illuminate another celestial body with a beam of light on May 9, 1962; then a beam of light was reflected from the surface of the Moon. It was aimed by a laser (a light amplifier based on stimulated emission of radiation) whose sighting precision was coordinated by a 121.9 cm telescope located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. A spot with a diameter of about 6.4 km was illuminated on the lunar surface. The laser was proposed in 1958 by the American Charles Townes (born 1915). A light pulse of similar power with a duration of 1/5000 can burn through a diamond due to its evaporation at temperatures up to 10,000°C. This temperature is created by 2·10 23 photons. As reported, the Shiva laser installed in the laboratory named after. Lawrence Livermore, California, USA, was able to concentrate a light beam with a power of about 2.6 x 10 13 W on an object the size of a pinhead for 9.5 x 10 –11 s. This result was obtained in an experiment on May 18, 1978.

The brightest light

The brightest sources of artificial light are laser pulses, which were generated at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA, in March 1987 by Dr. Robert Graham. The power of a flash of ultraviolet light lasting 1 picosecond (1·10 –12 s) was 5·10 15 W.

The most powerful source of constant light is the argon arc lamp high pressure with a power consumption of 313 kW and a luminous intensity of 1.2 million candelas, manufactured by Vortec Industries in Vancouver, Canada, in March 1984.

The most powerful spotlight was produced during the Second World War, in 1939...1945, by General Electric. It was developed at the Hearst Research Centre, London. With a power input of 600 kW, it produced an arc brightness of 46,500 cd/cm2 and a maximum beam intensity of 2,700 million cd from a parabolic mirror with a diameter of 3.04 m.

The shortest pulse of light

Charles Shank and colleagues in the laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (ATT), New Jersey, USA, received a light pulse with a duration of 8 femtoseconds (8 10 -15 s), which was announced in April 1985. Pulse length equal to 4...5 wavelengths of visible light, or 2.4 microns.

The longest lasting light bulb

The average incandescent light bulb burns for 750...1000 hours. There is information that, produced by Shelby Electric and recently demonstrated by Mr. Burnell at the Fire Department of Livermore, California, USA, first gave light in 1901.

The heaviest magnet

The world's heaviest magnet has a diameter of 60 m and weighs 36 thousand tons. It was made for a 10 TeV synchrophasotron installed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Moscow region.

The largest electromagnet

The world's largest electromagnet is part of the L3 detector used in experiments at the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) at the European Council for Nuclear Research, Switzerland. The octagonal-shaped electromagnet consists of a yoke made of 6400 tons of low-carbon steel and an aluminum coil weighing 1100 tons. The yoke elements, weighing up to 30 tons each, were manufactured in the USSR. The coil, made in Switzerland, consists of 168 turns, electrically welded to an octagonal frame. A current of 30 thousand A passing through an aluminum coil creates a magnetic field with a power of 5 kilogauss. The dimensions of the electromagnet, exceeding the height of a 4-story building, are 12x12x12 m, and the total weight is 7810 tons. More metal was spent on its manufacture than on its construction.

Magnetic fields

The most powerful constant field of 35.3 ± 0.3 Tesla was obtained at the National Magnetic Laboratory. Francis Bitter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, May 26, 1988. To obtain it, a hybrid magnet with holmium poles was used. Under its influence, the magnetic field created by the heart and brain intensified.

The weakest magnetic field was measured in a shielded room in the same laboratory. Its value was 8·10 –15 Tesla. It was used by Dr. David Cohen to study the extremely weak magnetic fields produced by the heart and brain.

The most powerful microscope

The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), invented at the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich in 1981, allows for magnification of 100 million times and resolution of details down to 0.01 atomic diameters (3 × 10 –10 m). It is claimed that the size of the 4th generation scanning tunneling microscopes will not exceed the size of a thimble.

Using field ion microscopy techniques, the probe tips of scanning tunneling microscopes are made so that there is one atom at the end - the last 3 layers of this man-made pyramid consist of 7, 3 and 1 atom. In July 1986, representatives of the Bell Telephone Laboratory Systems, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, announced that they were able to transfer a single atom (most likely germanium) from the tungsten probe tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to a germanium surface. In January 1990, a similar operation was repeated by D. Eigler and E. Schweitzer from Research Center IBM Company, San Jose, California, USA. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, they laid out the word IBM single xenon atoms, transferring them to the nickel surface.

The loudest noise

The loudest noise obtained in laboratory conditions was 210 dB, or 400 thousand ac. Watts (acoustic watts), NASA reported. It was obtained by reflecting sound from a 14.63 m reinforced concrete test stand and 18.3 m deep foundation designed for testing the Saturn V rocket at the Space Flight Center. Marshall, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, in October 1965. A sound wave of such strength could drill holes in solid materials. The noise was heard within 161 km.

The smallest microphone

In 1967, Professor Ibrahim Cavrak of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, created a microphone for a new technique for measuring pressure in a fluid flow. Its frequency range is from 10 Hz to 10 kHz, dimensions are 1.5 mm x 0.7 mm.

Highest note

The highest note received has a frequency of 60 gigahertz. It was generated by a laser beam aimed at a sapphire crystal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in September 1964.

The most powerful particle accelerator

Proton synchrotron with a diameter of 2 km at the National Acceleration Laboratory. Fermi, east of Bateivia, Illinois, USA, is the world's most powerful nuclear particle accelerator. On May 14, 1976, an energy of about 500 GeV (5·10 11 electron-volts) was obtained for the first time. On October 13, 1985, as a result of the collision of beams of protons and antiprotons, an energy in the center of mass system of 1.6 GeV (1.6 10 11 electron volts) was obtained. This required 1,000 superconducting magnets operating at a temperature of -268.8°C, maintained using the world's largest helium liquefaction plant with a capacity of 4,500 l/h, which came into operation on April 18, 1980.

CERN's (European Organization for Nuclear Research) goal of colliding beams of protons and antiprotons in the ultra-high energy proton synchrotron (SPS) with an energy of 270 GeV 2 = 540 GeV was achieved in Geneva, Switzerland, at 4:55 a.m. on July 10 1981. This energy is equivalent to that released during the collision of protons with an energy of 150 thousand GeV with a stationary target.

The US Department of Energy on August 16, 1983 subsidized research to create a superconducting supercollider (SSC) with a diameter of 83.6 km by 1995 using the energy of two proton-antiproton beams at 20 TeV. The White house approved this $6 billion project on January 30, 1987.

The quietest place

The 10.67 x 8.5 m "dead room" at the Bell Telephone Systems Laboratory, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, is the most sound-absorbing room in the world, in which 99.98% of reflected sound disappears .

The sharpest objects and the smallest tubes

The sharpest human-made objects are the glass micropipette tubes used in experiments with living cell tissue. The technology for their production was developed and implemented by Professor Kenneth T. Brown and Dale J. Flaming at the Department of Physiology at the University of California at San Francisco in 1977. They obtained conical tube tips with an outer diameter of 0.02 μm and an inner diameter of 0.01 μm . The latter was 6500 times thinner than a human hair.

The smallest artificial object

On February 8, 1988, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, USA, announced that it had succeeded in producing “quantum dots” from indium and gallium arsenide with a diameter of only 100 millionths of a millimeter.

Highest vacuum

It was obtained at the IBM Research Center named after. Thomas J. Watson, Yorktown Heights, New York, USA, in October 1976 in a cryogenic system with temperatures down to –269°C and was equal to 10 –14 torr. This is equivalent to the distance between molecules (the size of a tennis ball) increasing from 1 m to 80 km.

Lowest viscosity

The California Institute of Technology, USA, announced on December 1, 1957 that liquid helium-2 at temperatures close to absolute zero (–273.15°C) does not have viscosity, i.e. has ideal fluidity.

Highest voltage

On May 17, 1979, the highest electrical potential difference was obtained under laboratory conditions at National Electrostatics Corporation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. It amounted to 32 ± 1.5 million V.

Guinness Book of Records, 1998