• Question: Why do spinning tops not fall down?

    Asked by avengedsevenfold to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Luna Munoz

      Luna Munoz answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Centrifugal force, I think. So when it slows down to a certain point, gravity will take over and then it will fall.

    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Conservation of angular momentum: once you have set the top spinning, the only way you can change the way that it spins is by applying a force to it. So if you just leave the top, it won’t fall over – because that would change the way it is spinning – until it eventually slows down because of friction at the base.

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