How do you make a spinning top?

Answer 1

First, you get a string. Then, you wrap it around he top. Then, you pull the string, and the spin top starts spinning. (Make sure it is on a flat surface, it will spin better :))

Explaining why and how it sits up when anything else would fall over is a little more difficult, but I think most people would be able to follow this chain of thought.

We begin by seeing why spinning objects move in odd ways.

Imagine removing the rim from a bicycle wheel and putting a tennis ball on the end of each spoke. That leaves us with a tangle of wires and rubber spheres, but if we put the axle in some secure driving mount and spin up the thing, we should get a disc of balls looking like a loose rimmed wheel.

Now we need to get directions in three dimensions easily understood so imagine the spinning ring of balls is where a circular table top would be if we were the only person sitting to it. That is, horizontal and below and in front of our eyes. Now we can see its peculiar behavior.

For example, suppose we wanted to tilt the disc so that the right side was lower and the left side was higher. Naturally, we push down on the right side and up on the left. Unfortunately, this doesn't produce the right result. The explanation goes like this.

When a tennis ball is travelling horizontally and the bottom of the ball hits an obstruction, the ball is deflected (bounces) upwards. Similarly, the balls on the left side of our wheel thing hit your hand as you try to push them up, and they immediately have a new direction of travel, let's say 20 degrees upwards. Now, they hit nothing else after that (for half a rotation at least) and so they think they are in a disc inclined at 20 degrees. This tilt is not down on the left and up on the right. It's up at the back and down in the front. The table tilts towards us instead.

We can check by looking at the right side where we are pushing down. We're deflecting the stream of balls there downwards so they sweep the downward arc into our lap and up again to the left edge where they get further upward deflection.

In short, we can simplify our discovery by saying "The effect happens a quarter-turn further around the circle than where the cause is applied."

Now, to apply this to why tops stay standing, instead of a spinning table-top, let's have a vertical pole with a tennis ball disc about it's middle, like a ballerina's tutu. The pole and disk is spinning clockwise if we look down on them. Imagine also a little circular base to the pole which would keep the whole thing standing when at rest.

O.K. Now we have the pole spinning and we imagine it is falling over to our right and is at 45 degrees past the vertical. The little base disc has only its right edge touching the floor and so it rolls away from us. This is similar in effect to someone trying to turn the thing clockwise looking down which is the same effect as pushing the back of the disc to the right and the front of the disc to the left. And because of the 45 degree tilt, the push at the back is half upwards and at the front half downwards.

Now we have the pushes sorted out their effect is a quarter turn further on. The upping occurs not at the back, but at the right edge, and the downing is on the left edge. The result is a movement of the disc which brings the pole back to vertical. whichever way we try to tilt the top, there is a righting force doing exactly the opposite.

Answer 2

There are many different types of pen spinning such as the charge, sonic, thumbaround, and etc. Spinning a pen requires a lot of patience and skill to master.

Answer 3

You throw a switch then you have someone else start spinning the wheel to make the thread.

Answer 4

To make your top spin longer you might experiment with different surfaces like a mirror a glass dish, or even on a polished marble floor.

Answer 5

you get a top and spin it