Magnetic World Records

Mason C assembled a standard pile of 216 Buckyballs into a cube in one minute, 37.64 seconds, using just one hand.

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, stood a D battery upright in 1.77 seconds without a finger touching it, using only a magnet ball stuck to the tip of a key. The battery starts on its side beside a smartwatch stopwatch reading 00:00.00, and the ball latches onto one end, swings the battery up onto its base and lets go while the other hand works the clock. RecordSetter matched the 00:01.77 on the stopwatch close-up to the start and stop taps in the unedited video, and watched the battery stay standing on its own for about two seconds after the stop. One swing of a key, no fingers on the battery.

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, stood two D batteries upright in 5.44 seconds without a finger touching either one, using only a magnet ball clinging to the tip of a key. Both batteries start lying on their sides beside a smartwatch stopwatch, and the ball latches onto the end of each battery and pulls it up onto its base while the other hand works the clock. RecordSetter matched the 00:05.44 on the stopwatch close-up to the start and stop taps in the unedited video, and watched both batteries stay standing on their own for several seconds after the stop. A key, a magnet and a very steady hand.

Yanhao Deng of Chenzhou, Hunan, held a D battery upright by its top end with a round magnet ball clinging to the rim underneath and a second D battery hanging from the ball by magnetism alone. With a smartwatch stopwatch started from zero on camera beside the batteries, Yanhao keeps the ball circling the rim so the lower battery swings around beneath it without a finger ever touching it. RecordSetter went through the unedited video frame by frame and counted 13 full rotations before the stopwatch reaches 10 seconds, matching Yanhao's count. One magnet ball, two batteries and nothing else holding them together.