A team from the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing has set a Guinness World Record for creating the smallest national flag ever measured.
They’ve developed a Canadian flag that measures 1.178 micrometres (about 0.001 millimetres, or one one-hundredth the width of a human hair) wide and is only visible with the help of an electron microscope.
IQC engineers created the flag on a silicon wafer with the use of electron beam lithography.
The flag also ties into the upcoming celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, as the wafer it was created on is emblazoned with the Canada 150 logo.
“The future of Canadian technology is firmly set in the quantum world and at the nano-scale, so what better way to celebrate the lead up to 2017 than with a record-setting nano-scale national flag,” IQC associate director Tobi Day-Hamilton said in a press release.
The flag will be on display at a quantum-focused exhibit at Kitchener’s THEMUSEUM starting Oct. 14.
Next year, it and the rest of the exhibit will be sent to various science centres around the country.
Guinness did not previously have a record for the world’s smallest national flag.
