Old Fashioned Top

 

Code Number: 1Q60.16

Demo Title: Old Fashioned Top

Condition: Fair

Principle: Conservation of Angular Momentum about Vertical Axis

Area of Study: Mechanics

Equipment: 

Old Fashioned Top.

Procedure:

NOTE:  this is a very difficult one to do, it will require much practice.  

Flip the top out of your hand much the same way you would do a yo-yo.  As the top is unwinding on the string you must pull the string up so that the string is completely off of the top by the time the top hits the floor.  Once on the floor, even though the top was started at a shallow angle, the top should stand up straight and spin for several minutes.

  • Richard Harding, Robert Prigo, "The Yo-Yo Top", TPT, Vol. 22, # 1, Jan. 1984, p. 36.
  • Ledo Stefanini, "Behavior of a Real Top", AJP, Vol. 47, #4, April 1979, p. 346.
  • Mu- 3,  Freier and Anderson,  A Demonstration Handbook for Physics.
  • Jearl Walker, "1.104, Personalities of Tops", The Flying Circus of Physics Ed. 2, p. 52.
  • References:
  • Jearl Walker,  "The Physics of Spinning Tops, Including Some Far-Out Ones",  The Amateur Scientist, March, 1981.
  • "Wild Top", The Boy Mechanic, p. 197, ISBN 978-1-58816-509-1.
  • "An Austrian Top", The Boy Mechanic, p. 196, ISBN 978-1-58816-509-1.