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[ta0]

This is the Thumbler from Top Secret Toys:



The website claims that it's: "The first ever handheld spinning top!"   
The cost is $8.

It consist of a top with spin activated LEDs, confined so that the lower stem spins in one point while the upper stem runs along a groove. By rotary movement of the wrist, the top is made to run along this guide by centrifugal force and friction of the stem spins up the top. It works well and the light show is nice.

This top reminds me of a beautiful songbird in a cage. It makes me sad. Not only is the top jailed, but it's not even allowed to rise up: it can only precess at an angle, it's desires always frustrated.  :'( So I had the urge to free it. By squeezing very hard the cage, to the point that I was afraid that it would break, I could get the upper stem out of the groove and finally the full top out of the cage. It can know spin like a free top as it was born to be!   



By the way, when free it's easier to spin upside down as the upper stem is shorter and less pointy.

It's sold as a fidget toy. I wonder if the original idea was that the cage would open and release the top while spinning. At least they should have made the upper stem guide open to the inside so the top could stand up and sleep. Anyway, I'm adding the Thumbler to my collection as a somewhat different way of spinning a top.

[ta0]

The toy comes with a little instructions sheet where there is a note about the science behind it. It explains that the top precesses while spinning, "similar to the earth that exhibits the precession of the equinoxes, completing one cycle every 26,000 years and is partly responsible for the ice ages." Then it claims that the top "can be made to spin at 25 times per second (1500 RPM) while the axle precesses only a few times per second."

I measured the diameter of the upper stem to be 2.7 mm and the outside wall of the groove 30 mm, or a ratio of about 11. So, if the top spins at 25 times per second, it will go around (without slippage) 2.25 times per second, what is close to what I see. But the ratio is still far from the Earth year/day ratio of 365.25, not to mention the 26,000 larger ratio of equinox precession/day.