The Best Spinning Tops
The spinning top is 5,000 years old. Archaeologists have found them in Egyptian tombs, Minoan ruins, and Native American sites. The physics has not changed: a gyroscope resists gravity as long as angular momentum is maintained. The best tops today are made the same way they were made in German workshops in 1880.
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How to Choose
There are three main types: push tops (driven by a pump-action stick), string tops (wound and released), and hand-spin tops (started by twisting between the fingers). German dreidel-style humming tops are the most satisfying for young children. Competition tops for older children and adults are precision-machined steel. Traditional Japanese koma tops are hand-carved and brightly painted.
Mader German Humming Top Classic Large
Mader has been making spinning tops in Germany for over 130 years. The classic humming top is wound with a cord, set on its tip, and pulled -- the cord unwinds and the top spins with a low, resonant hum produced by air moving through ventilation holes in the tin body. The sound is immediately distinctive. These are made in Germany with the same design they have used for generations.
The spinning top with a voice. The hum is the point -- it is the sound of physics made audible.
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Hand-Carved Wooden Dreidel Top
A four-sided spinning top carved from solid maple with letters burned into each face. The dreidel has been spun as a game piece for at least four centuries and the physics of a hand-launched four-sided top rewards practice -- a well-executed spin keeps it balanced for thirty seconds or more. Carved, not cast. The grain of the wood is visible in the finished top.
The hand-carved format in dense maple. The grain pattern on every top is unique.
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Craighill Duncan Polished Brass Top
Machined from solid brass on a metal lathe, the Craighill top is a precision gyroscope in the form of a toy. The tapered tip is hardened steel; the body is polished brass. It can spin for several minutes when launched correctly. The weight makes it more forgiving of uneven surfaces than lighter tops. A desk object as much as a toy.
The adult collector's top. Brass machined to tolerances that produce a spin measured in minutes, not seconds.
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