Handwriting World Records

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, wrote the English alphabet in 26.47 seconds with a pen clamped in the jaws of an adjustable wrench, steering the whole wrench across a sheet of squared writing paper instead of holding the pen. In one unedited take, Yanhao starts a phone stopwatch, picks up the wrench, prints A through U across one line and finishes V to Z just beneath it, then sets the wrench down and stops the clock. RecordSetter read the stopwatch on camera and timed the gap between the two taps on the video to confirm the result. Penmanship, with a little extra torque.

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, wrote the numbers 1 to 10 in 7.84 seconds with a pen clamped in the jaws of an adjustable wrench, steering the whole tool across a sheet of squared writing paper instead of holding the pen. In one unedited take, Yanhao starts a phone stopwatch, picks up the wrench, writes 1 to 4, 5 to 7 and 8 to 10 in three short rows at the top of the page, then sets the wrench down and stops the clock. RecordSetter read the stopwatch on camera and timed the gap between the two taps on the video to confirm the result. Ten numbers, one very heavy pen.

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, filled the front of one 3-by-3-inch sticky note with 307 different English words in tiny, careful handwriting, from "ace act add" in the top row to "make mesh orb" squeezed along the bottom edge. The video shows the note on a bedsheet close enough to read word by word, then lines it up against a centimeter ruler to show it measures about 7.6 cm across. RecordSetter read the note row by row from the footage: repeated words are crossed out rather than counted, and nearly every word is three or four letters long, which is how so many fit.

For a school project in Santa Rosa, California, Keren Luvishis filled page after page of notebook paper, front and back, with handwritten three-letter Spanish words. In the video, Keren and a classmate hold each sheet up to the camera and count off the sides from the first page to the last. The total of 2,768 words is Keren's own count of the finished pages. That pencil has earned a rest.

Jen F. wrote a handwritten request on a grain of rice measuring 5.5 millimeters in length and two millimeters in width. The 41-letter request was for Sir Richard Branson to write a foreword for her book. Learn more about the feat here.