Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Vortex technology

re: Vortex technology
ER — (archived)

Not really, Techmeister. Tops in were probably turned on a wood lathe, and as long as the wooden blank was of uniform density and had no knots or voids it was possible to turn them out perfectly balanced, even with pre-industrial technologies. The tops I describe have been around for centuries, at least. I suspect they went out of favor because they were potentially dangerous, and because parents don't like their kids playing out in the street.

The top isn't the only example of kid culture that has disappeared, all the childhood folklore passed on from generation to generation of kids, for hundreds and even thousands of years, is being forgotten. For example, fairy tales and nursery rhymes often have references going back to medieval times; "ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies...all fall down" is a memory of the days of the Black Plague and how the scent of flowers was thought to protect you from infection. I think my generation was the last one to have been allowed a glimpse into that long tradition.

As for the vortical connections of tops, I think conventional physics offers better explanations. The classical analysis of rotational dynamics and the concepts of gyroscopic effect, angular momentum, and precession have been very well understood mathematically and precisely defined for several hundred years now. It's all a straightforward extension of Newton's Laws with a little calculus. When I was a physics student, tops were often used as classroom examples because both professors and students had played with them as kids. I wonder what they use now.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (90 posts)