Tippy Top and Other Spinning Toys

Tadashi Tokieda, Cambridge University

I will present a theory of traditional tippy tops that can calculate many interesting characteristics that are not well handled in the literature.  Examples are tip-over time, critical initial spin that makes the top tip over, critical eccentricity of the center of gravity from the center of curvature, etc. Then I will show a non-traditional tippy top that indicates that our current understanding, including my theory, has an essential gap.  Other spinning toys will also be shown and discussed.