I found this this website that explains the precession of a top, but obviously, it is not comprehensible to a younger student. I am not referring to why tops stay up, just why they make circles that increase in size and then fall over. The person that I am explaining it to does at least understand gravity and Newton's laws.
Asked
Active
Viewed 142 times
3
-
I find the wikipedia page and the image beside it show a fairly clear picture. – JMac May 29 '17 at 16:22
-
2How would you explain it to someone who has taken a physics course? – Asher May 29 '17 at 17:00
-
1This video is absolutely amazing: https://youtu.be/XHGKIzCcVa0 (Spinning, by Vsauce) (added as a comment because my answer apparently violated policy...) – Hritik Narayan May 29 '17 at 20:38
-
1@HritikNarayan Thank you! That video is great and I would accept this if it was an answer. – Johnny Dollard May 30 '17 at 22:25