Still no feedback re the finger top posting from last wek

Your "tippy-top" question is one that is a physics exercise and often given to grad students (maybe now it's for junior high students ) to write about. It's also been a fairly common physics fair experiment for the younger ones too. Here are some links of a scientific nature about it....

(watch for URL wrapping ... you may have to copy/paste it)

- Andrew

Andrew, you have accomplished the near impossible. For once I'm left speechless. C'mon Don Watland, we need you? Arch

Fortiter,

I just tried making one, a sphere with a stem. It didn't do the tippy thing :-( I made the sphere as perfectly round as I could, using a taper bearing race for a template. I used straight-grained maple.

It acted like it wanted to flip over, but just spun on it's side.

Ken Grunke SW Wisconsin

The commercial ones are made out of two separate density materials, if my memory is correct.

Saw some last at the "Dom Igrushki" > > Surely there must be some finger top turners who subscribe to this news > > group. >

Before someone mentions it, I of course meant Dom Igrushek. The house of toy(s).

Your can do this with a football. Take a football and spin it on its long axis, it will go astable and tilt to a tip and spin on that point. You may have seen this trick when a player celebrates in the end zone. Try it

Juergen

Graham Nichols wrote:

Hi In Good Woodworking April 1996 Issue 42 there is an article on Japanese Inverting Tops. If you aren't able to find a copy I would make a copy and email it to you if you wish I made a couple & one worked really well. The other one "less said the better" Michael