The First Place to Look

World Records

Body   Sport   Fun / Skills   Tech / Construction   Natural   How to Break   Links

Body —————————————————————————————————————————

Oldest Person

122 y 164 d  (1997)

Tallest Person

2.72 m  /  8 ft 11 in  (1940)

Heaviest Person

636 kg  /  1400 lb  (1978)

Biggest Hand (Wrist to Middle Finger)

26.9 cm  /  10.6 in  (2008)

Biggest Feet

47cm  /  18.5 in  (1940)

Biggest Nose

8.8 cm  /  3.5 in  (2007)

Longest Tongue

9.5 cm  /  3.7 in  (2006)

Longest Hair

5.63 m /  18 ft 5.5 in  (2004)

Longest Beard

5.33m  /  17 ft 6 in  (1927)

Longest Moustache

3.81 m  /  12 ft 6 in  (2004)

Longest Ear Hair

13.2 cm  /  5.2 in  (2003)

Breath Holding

00h:17m:04s  (2008)

Time Without Sleep

264 h  /  11 d  (1964)

Sport ————————————————————————————————————————-

Push-Ups in One Hour

1781  (2005)

Continuous Non-Stop Push-Ups

10,507  (1980)

Pull-Ups in One Minute

46  (2007)

Long Jump

8.95 m  /  29 ft 4.4 in  (1991)

High jump

2.45 m  /  8 ft 0.5 in  (1993)

100m (Running)

9.69 s  (2008)

1500m (Running)

03m:26s  (1998)

10,000m (Running)

26m:17s  (2005)

Marathon

02h:04m:26s  (2007)

100m (Swimming)

47.24 s  (2008)

100 m (Swimming - Backstroke)

52.98 s  (2007)

1500m (Swimming)

14m:34s  (2001)

Longest Distance Swam

5268 km  /  3274 miles  (2007)

Soccer Ball Juggling (With Feet)

19h:30m:00s  (2003)

Soccer Ball Heading

08:32m:03s  (2004)

Fun / Skills —————————————————————————————————————

Balancing Pool Cue on Finger

11km  /  7 miles  (2005)

Balancing Milk Bottle on Head

130km  /  81 miles  (1998)

One-Handed Brick Carrying

137 km  /  85miles  (1999)

100m (Space Hopper)

30.2 s  (2004)

Parachute Jumps in 24 Hours

640  (2006)

20 oz / 590 ml Glasses Balanced on Chin

81  (2007)

Grapes Caught in Mouth in One Minute

77  (2006)

One Minute Apple Bobbing

33  (2008)

Spoons Balanced on Face

16  (2008)

Fastest Rapper

852 syllables in 42 seconds  (2007)

Drinking a Litre of Beer

1.3 s  (1977)

Eating a 12" Pizza

19.91 s  (2006)

Hot Dog Eating (Sausage & Bun)

66 in 12 minutes  (2007)

Fastest Balloon Model of a Dog

6.5 s  (2006)

Largest Origami Paper Crane (Wingspan)

78.19 m  /  256 ft 6 in  (2001)

Numbers Memorised in One Minute

162  (2005)

Rubik Cube Solving (Single 3×3)

9.18s  (2008)

Tallest House of Cards

7.85 m  /  25 ft 9 in  (2007)

Tallest Sandcastle

9.6 m  /  31 ft 6 in  (2007)

Longest Chess Game

20h:15m  (1989)

Longest Movie

5,220 minutes  /  87 hours  (The Cure for Insomnia)

Longest Book Title

3,999 characters  /  670 words  (2007)

Longest Book (English Language)

2.5 million words  (Marienbad My Love)

Longest Human Chain (Hand-to-Hand)

1,050 km  /  652 miles /  5 million people  (2004)

Tech / Construction —————————————————————————————————

Farthest Human from Earth

400,171 km  /  248,655 miles  (1970)

Longest Continuous Human Time in Space

437 days  (1994)

Car Speed

1,228 km/h  /  763 mph  (1997)

Fastest Production Car

412 km/h  /  256 mph  (2007)

Motorcycle Speed

565 km/h  /  350 mph  (2006)

Water Speed

511 km/h  /  318 mph  (1978)

Aircraft (Manned) Speed

3,530 km/h  /  2,194 mph  (1976)

Longest Road

24,140 km  /  15,000 miles  (Pan-American Highway, South & North America)

Longest Tunnel

57 km  /  35 miles  (The Alps, Switzerland)

Longest Bridge

35 km  /  22 miles  (Hangzhou Bay, China)

Longest Railroad

9,288 km  /  5,772 miles  (Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia)

Tallest Building

636 m  /  2,087 ft  (Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Floors in a Building

162  (Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Tallest Roller Coaster

139 m  456 ft  (Kingda Ka, United States)

Tallest Ferris Wheel

165m  541 ft  (Singapore Flyer, Singapore)

Largest Building (By Volume)

13.3 million m³   /  472 million ft³  (Boeing Plant, USA)

Largest Building (By Floor Space)

1.3 m²  /  14 million ft²)  (Beijing Airport Terminal 3, China)

Longest Building

1,700 m  /  5,580 ft  (Kansai International Airport Terminal, Japan) 

Largest Shopping Mall

890,000 m²  /  9.6 million ft²  (South China Mall, China)

Highest Capacity Sporting Facility

400,000 people  (Indianapolis Speedway, USA)

Natural ———————————————————————————————————————-

Tallest Tree

115.55 m  /  379 ft 1 in  (Redwood National Park, USA)

Longest River

6,695 km  /  4,160 miles  (Nile River, East Africa)

Highest Point on Earth

8,848 m  /  29,028 ft  (Mount Everest, Nepal)

Greatest Vertical Drop

1,250 m  /  4,100 ft  (Mount Thor, Canada)

Deepest Point on Earth

10,923 m  /  35,838 ft  (Challenger Deep, Pacific Ocean)

Highest Temperature

58 °C  /  136 °F  (Al 'Aziziyah, Libya)

Fastest Temperature Rise

27 °C  /  49 °F  in 2 minutes  (South Dakota, USA)

Longest Heat Wave (Continuous Days Exceeding 37.8°C / 100°F)

160 days  (Marble Bar, Australia)

Coldest Temperature

−89.6 °C  /  −128.6 °F  (Vostok Station, Antarctica)

Rain in One Minute

3.1 cm  /  1.2 in  (Maryland, USA)

Total Annual Rainfall

26.47 m  /  86 ft 10.1 in  (Cherrapunji, India)

Total Annual Snowfall

31.1 m  /  102 ft 0.4 in  (Mount Rainier, USA)

Largest Snowflake (Diameter)

38 cm  /  15 in  (Montana, USA)

How To Break ————————————————————————————————————

The ‘Guinness World Records’ are generally recognised as being the official list of world records

There are approximately 30,000 world records currently set.

The 'Guinness World Records Book' publishes about 4,000 records each year.

The Guinness World Records Organisation receives around 65,000 enquiries a year from people who want to set or break records.

You can set a world record in anything that's measurable.

Common measurements for world records: length; height; volume; quantity; speed; duration.

To beat an existing world record you must follow exactly the rules and guidelines that were followed by the record holder.

It's possible to set an official world record for something that hasn't been attempted before.

For a world record attempt to be valid, the Guinness World Records Organisation must be contacted before the attempt is made.

Reasons for world record attempts not being accepted: risk to members of the public; risk to yourself; not being a substantial enough challenge; being too specific / unique to yourself.

An official referee / adjudicator can be provided by the Guinness World Records Organisation on request.

It’s possible to set a world record without having an official referee / adjudicator present; to do so, witnesses must be present and video evidence must be provided.

If an official referee / adjudicator attends a record attempt, they’ll give an immediate answer on whether the attempt fails or succeeds; if one isn’t present, it will likely take months for an attempt to be verified.

It doesn't cost anything attempt to set or break a world record.

Ashrita Furman has set around 190 world records; this is more than anybody else.

November 9th is officially ‘International World Records Day’; it attracts more attempts at breaking world records than any other day.

Body   Sport   Fun / Skills   Tech / Construction   Natural   How to Break   Links

www.guinnessworldrecords.com : Find a World Record. World Record FAQs. News. History.

www.recordholders.org : Rules, Guidelines and results for popular world records.

www.alternativerecords.co.uk : Collection of weird and unusual world records.