collage of smallest dog smallest spoon smallest fidget spinner

Guinness World Records titles has always been known to highlight the most impressive things from all across our planet such as the fastest, the heaviest, the biggest or the longest.

But sometimes, amazing things stand out for being the smallest in the world.

But just how small is the world’s smallest spoon, bird or stop-motion film? (Hint: the stop-motion film is made using atoms, so it's pretty small!)

Well sit back, relax and let’s find out the size of the smallest things in the world.

Smallest fidget spinner

MinebeaMitsumi Inc. from Minato, Tokyo, created this tiny toy

Measuring just 5.09 mm (0.20 in) long, they created the world's smallest fidget spinner back in November 2017. 

Built using the smallest commercially available steel ball bearing, also created by MinebeaMitsumi Inc, the spinner weighs just  0.027 g (0.00095 oz).

A team of eight spent two months creating the record-breaking spinner.

The-Smallest-newspaper-in-the-world-next-to-a-cup-of-coffee

Smallest newspaper

Next up is the world’s smallest newspaper, which in case you didn’t realize, is placed next to the coffee cup!

The mini newspaper is an edition of the newspaper Terra Nostra (Portugal) and measures at 18.27 x 25.35 mm (0.72 x 0.99 in). The outstanding newspaper weighs at 1 g only.

It was actually published back in 2012 with 3000 copies going on sale and is an exact copy of the normal sized edition.

The unique newspaper was created by Nova Gráfica (Portugal) in Ponta Delgada, Portugal.

Smallest dog 

The smallest dog living, in terms of height, is a female Chihuahua called Milly, who measured 9.65 cm (3.8 in) tall on 21 February 2013.

She is owned by Vanesa Semler of Dorado, Puerto Rico.

When Milly (or Miracle Milly as per her name on her pedigree) was born on 1 December 2011, she weighed less than one ounce (28 g), could fit in a teaspoon and had to be fed with an eyedropper. 

At one year old, she weighed approximately 567 g (20 oz).

An ant carrying the smallest wooden spoon

Smallest wooden spoon

Yes, that is the smallest wooden spoon in the world being held by an ant! Bon Appétit!

The say a picture is worth a thousand words, but if you want to know exactly how small this wooden spoon is, it measures at just is 4.5 mm (0.18 in) long.

The record title was achieved by Gowrishankar Gummadidhala (India) in Telangana, India.

Gummadidhala beat the previous record achieved by Talabathula Sai (India) with a spoon measuring at 7 mm (0.27 in) long.

Smallest stop-motion film

IBM Research Laboratories in San Jose, California, USA managed to combine science and art by breaking the record for the smallest stop-motion film.

The 60 seconds film titled "A Boy and his Atom" tells a short story of a boy named Atom playing with a ball.

It comprised of 242 individual frames with a frame size of only 45 nanometres by 25 nanometres (45 x 25 billionths of a metre).

How the film was made

The individual molecules of carbon monoxide were placed as pixels on a copper sheet to create each frame of the film. The molecules were positioned using a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM), which uses an ultra-fine metal tip to move the molecules with electrical charge. 

Once these molecules of carbon monoxide were in place in each frame, the STM took 4 min 53 sec to scan the whole frame to build up the image recorded on film. This process was meticulously repeated for each frame.

smallest bird

Smallest bird 

This tiny bird is the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) of Cuba and the Isle of Youth. 

Males measure 57 mm (2.24 in) in total length, half of which is taken up by the bill and tail, and weigh 1.6 g (0.056 oz). Females are slightly larger.

This is believed to be the lowest weight limit for any warm-blooded animal.

Smallest ecosystem

The bee hummingbird doesn't reside in the smallest ecosystem, however.

In October 2008 scientists announced they had discovered the first ecosystem on Earth which has only one species. 

Desulforudis audaxviator was found 2.8 km beneath the Earth’s surface in the Mponeng gold mine, South Africa. 

It exists in complete isolation from any other species in complete darkness and temperatures of 60° C.

Smallest nightclub

This might be just the thing for a solo boogie during lockdown - no squishing in with strangers, though! 

The world's smallest mobile nightclub is "Club 28", which is a box measuring only 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) high, 0.92 m (3 ft) wide & 1.53 m (5 ft) deep. 

It was created by Gerard Jenkins-Omar and Stephen Robson (both UK) and was measured in Rotherham, UK, on 24 September 2016.

The maximum capacity for the nightclub is six people (at a squeeze!), or seven including the DJ. 

The smallest game boy in the world next to a business card

Smallest Game Boy

Remember the Game Boy 90s kids?

The Game Boy was one of the most famous handheld game consoles of the 90s which was manufactured and developed by Nintendo back in 1989.

While the Game Boy was loved for its small size, Jeroen Domburg (Netherlands) took things to another level when her created the smallest Game Boy ever.

It measured at just 54 mm (2.12 in) long - you can see it in the image above next to a standard sized business card.

This little Game Boy fits on a key chain and boasts an impressive selection of the original Game Boy games.

Jeroen designed and built the Game Boy himself, meticulously selecting minuscule components to fit inside the tiny compartment.

Smallest motorcycle 

Because how else would you get to the smallest nightclub

Tom Wiberg (Sweden) built a motorcycle, which he named Smalltoe, that has a front wheel diameter of 16 mm (0.62 in) and a rear wheel diameter of 22 mm (0.86 in).

He was able to ride the teeny bike for more than 10 m (32.8 ft) in Hökerum, Sweden in 2003. 

The micro machine has a wheelbase of 80 mm (3.14 in), a seat height of 65 mm (2.55 in), weighs 1.1 kg (2.4 lb) and is powered to a top speed of 2 km/h (1.24 mph) by its 0.22 kW (0.3 hp) engine. 

A man holding the smallest ruler and viewing it with a microscope

Smallest ruler

The world’s smallest ruler was developed back in 1994 by John McCaffrey and Jean-Marc Baribeau of the Institute for Microstructural Sciences at the National Research Council of Canada.

The smallest division on the ruler is 18 atoms thick and individual atoms are visible.

It was used to measure very small lengths in an electron microscope.

You might be wondering how small is this in real life. 

The ruler is so small that ten of the rulers stacked end to end would equal the diameter of a human hair.

A man holding the smallest playing cards in the world

Smallest pack of playing cards

Meet Ramkumar Sarangapani (India) who currently holds 18 record titles and aims to break 100!

One of many record titles include the smallest pack of playing cards measuring at 7 mm X 5 mm X 4.86 mm.

The 41-year-old man is fascinated with breaking world records and does it ‘just for fun’.

Bonus fun fact, did you know that the smallest muscle in the human body is the stapedius? This muscle controls the stapes in the human ear. The muscle is around 1.27 mm (0.05 in) long!