Children's Museum of Houston

Science is the tops

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In a temporary exhibit, we have a top spinning table which always leads to the question:
why does spinning a top make it stay balanced when not-spinning makes it fall over?

Believe it or not, top spinning involved very complicated physics complete with calculus equations.  But, to simplify it, we’ll refer back to Newton’s First Law of Motion:  An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.  So, a spinning top tends to keep spinning and not get pulled over by gravity.  Eventually, as friction causes it to slow down, gravity becomes the stronger force and pulls it over.