Kirk's question about the ratio of moments of inertia made me realize how easy it would be to measure this using the
fishing line (torsion balance) method, as no calibration is needed for a ratio. If you have fishing line (e.g. 25 lb test) you can do it in 5 minutes (use adhesive tape to attach the line). So I decided to try our theory of the instability of the short circuit.
With the standard plastic tip, the ratio of longitudinal to transverse is around 1.1. Stable.
With a metal STEEL bearing tip (a prototype I had got) the ratio is 0.85. Stable (there are some vibrations but nothing unusual.
With an Aluminum bearing tip (the one that comes in the upgrade kit) the ratio is very close to 1.0! CRAZY MAD TOP!
The STEEL tip (not counting the bearing) weighs 6.8 gr. while the aluminum tip weighs 2.3 gr.: a difference of just 4.5 gr. at the tip kills the top!
Science is amazing!
PS: When I originally
reviewed the Energia Short Circuit I noticed the instability with a fixed tip aluminum tip (which I did not try this time because it's installed on a Big Shock). I also noticed that it was stable with the bearing tip, but I did not realize at the time that it was made of stainless steel (not magnetic) instead of aluminum.