hobby #191

Precision Spinning Top Turning and Gyroscopic Balancing

Designing and turning spinning tops from hardwood and brass on the lathe, then tuning tip geometry and mass distribution for maximum spin duration and stable precession — up to and including the tippe top, a squat top that friction-torques its own angular momentum around and stands up on its stem, flipping itself upside down while it spins. Half the craft is machining a dead-balanced body; the other half is coaxing a spun object into behaving exactly the way physics insists it must, whether I find that intuitive or not.

Two Millimetres of Stem Between Spinning and Standing Up

A top that balances on your fingertip is not necessarily a top that spins — mine proved this by walking off the bench onto the concrete. The tippe top, meanwhile, flips itself over for reasons it refu

code-a-day tied to this hobby

The Sleeping Top and the Number That Won't Move Fixed-point iteration

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