Search This Blog

Monday, December 12, 2011

World's smallest steam engine is just three thousandths of a millimetre long

During the golden age of steam trains, passengers were wowed by ever bigger and more powerful engines.

And steam power is still being developed – but these days it’s not so much the bigger the better, as the more microscopic the better, with German scientists having assembled a steam engine measuring just three thousandths of a millimetre.

Researchers at the University of Stuttgart and the Stuttgart-based Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems built the engine using a laser beam and a single particle floating in water.

Size matters: The world's smallest steam engine has to be viewed under a microscope

Size matters: The world's smallest steam engine has to be viewed under a microscope

Researcher Clemens Bechinger said: ‘We've developed the world's smallest steam engine, or to be more precise the smallest Stirling engine.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2073057/Worlds-smallest-steam-engine-just-thousandths-millimetre-long.html

No comments:

Post a Comment