Unusual Spinning Ball Top

This unusual spinning top consists of three wooden balls joined in a row, where the ball in the centre is slightly larger than the ones either side. You can simply spin it on the table, but that would be to miss the more remarkable action it can show if you spin it a different way.

Sometimes called a cylindrical top, the real spinning action consists of two simultaneous types of rotation, one a normal rotation, and the other, a rotation along the cylindrical axis. When spun in the correct way, as Tim demonstrates in the video, both types of rotation happen at the same time, and the top initially spins on one end. Then, as the rotation speed slows down, the top reverts to spinning flat on the table.

An unusual spinning top.