centrifugeR: Non-Trivial Balance of Centrifuge Rotors

Abstract

Loading tubes in opposite buckets has been used universally, yet intuitively to balance centrifuge rotors. Most rotors support tube distributions with rotational symmetry of order not only 2 but also other prime divisors of the total bucket number. This potential allows rotors to be balanced by the non-trivial placement of tubes, which offers users greater flexibility and more safety in centrifuge operation. Based on linear combinations and random samples, centrifugeR finds the numbers of tubes that can be loaded in centrifuge rotors in a single operation and shows how to balance these tubes in cases of equal or unequal masses.