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[jim in paris]

for his 1st festival des toupies in Brittany
mathieu is building a big chinese top

all details in this article in French
https://actu.fr/bretagne/bourbriac_22013/en-bretagne-ils-fabriquent-la-plus-grande-toupie-de-france-lourde-de-200-kg_60032861.html

the centering of the tip will be the last step in the process, before the whipping during the festival

good luck!

jim

[ta0]

Wow! Impressive!

Here are a couple of photos from the festival Facebook page:





I'm very happy that Mathieu has been able to accomplish his dream of organizing a spintop festival in Britanny.  And with the giant whip top he even managed to upend the other fests in Europe. I wish I could be there (but it coincides with the Zapopan festival).

[paulstewart]

That's a cool set up with the power planer on a track to true the Big Top.  Can hardly wait to see it in action!

[jim in paris]

https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/bourbriac-22390/video-pres-de-guingamp-le-festival-de-la-toupie-seduit-petits-et-grands-599ce9c1-0ae7-379b-9fae-d1d04765a32f

the big top spinning

bravo !

jim

[ta0]

The top was spun by the whipping but unfortunately not enough to spin freely, so it was always hanging from the support. It's going to be a challenge to make it spin freely, but if he brings it to Marines or Loon Plage festivals, I think we can achieve it. In China quite bigger tops are spun that way, although this one is more skinny what might make it more difficult.

[Spinningray]

Here is a unique method for starting big tops before whipping.

[ta0]

Ha! Love it! But the way I would like to start it is by running away with a rope, perhaps two people in opposite directions.

Great to see you posting, Alan. Your name was mentioned several times this weekend at the Mexican nats. As always, Figaro was a star and many people asked who made it.

[Jeremy McCreary]

In the video, the maker (Mathieu) claims that his top has a mass M of "1,2 tonnes" or 1200 kg. Problem is, a wooden top can't be anywhere near that dense.

Using the video with a ruler against the screen, I estimated the top's dimensions by scaling them against Mathieu's height, which looks average for the crowd. An average French male is 1.75 m tall per Wikipedia.

The wood looks like pine, which has an ovendry specific gravity (SG) of about 0.4. But If the claimed M = 1200 kg is correct, my estimated dimensions imply an SG of 7.0 —roughly that of iron. To come in at pine SG, the top would need a mass of ~70 kg — roughly that of an average human.

Regarding spin-up methods
Luckily, a uniform top's critical speed against gravity depends only on size and shape, not mass or density or SG. Using my estimated dimensions, this top has to spin faster than ~430 RPM to stay up on its own.

Attainable by whipping alone? By motor scooter? By human-powered rope-pulls?

Online spreadsheet
You can check my estimates and calculations here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k4blVudPHOg0nPTooYPhLWpLUfj-nL_6uJ3TKdFWDvM/edit?usp=drivesdk

Feel free to play with the numbers. Your changes affect only a local copy of the sheet, not the master in the cloud.

Please let me know if you find errors or think my estimated dimensions are way off.

[ta0]

The top that Mathieu built weighs 200kg.
On the video he mentions a Chinese whip top that weighs 1,200 kg.
The record I'm aware of is actually 1,306 kilograms.

[Jeremy McCreary]

The top that Mathieu built weighs 200kg.
On the video he mentions a Chinese whip top that weighs 1,200 kg.
The record I'm aware of is actually 1,306 kilograms.

Well, so much for my French. Still, if my estimated top dimensions are in the ballpark, the SG is still well above that of pine and other softwoods at 200 kg total mass. (See closeup photo of top. Doesn't look like hardwood grain to me.)

Could Mathieu be much taller than average? Could the top have a steel core — more than just a central rod or bolt?

Addendum: Went back and re-estimated dimensions, then updated online spreadsheet. At 200 kg total mass, I now estimate an SG of around 1.0 and a critical speed of around 362 RPM.

Oak — the densest common wood — has an ovendry SG of around 0 7.

[ta0]

I did a similar calculation (great minds think alike  ) for the 1,306 kg top and I also came out short. I wonder if big whip top makers are like fishermen . . . 

[paulstewart]

I love fallowing the math around this whip top.  I've yet to measure the rpm's of my Big Tops.  Once I know the rpm, I'd like to know the surface speed and if there is measure of energy .  We have plans to use one of the rental electric scooters available in NYC to power a top, but also a whip which I need to make.  Can you offer suggestion of specific material and size as a guess to get me started for a whip?  Thanks!

[Jeremy McCreary]

I love fallowing the math around this whip top.  I've yet to measure the rpm's of my Big Tops.  Once I know the rpm, I'd like to know the surface speed and if there is measure of energy .

We'd love to see your top and spin-up process! To get the rotational kinetic energy and critical speed (the minimum needed to stand against gravity), we need estimates of the top's moments of inertia and the distance from its tip (ground contact) to its center of mass (CM). And for those estimates, we need its mass, size, and shape.

For now, I'll assume a uniform cylindrical top of mass M, radius R, and length L with a CM-contact distance H > L.

For these calculations, best to work in meters, kilograms, and seconds and in angular speeds in radians/second (rad/s) rather than RPM. If N is the rotational frequency in RPM and w is the angular speed, then

w = pi N /30 (in rad/s)

A mark on the side of the top then travels at surface speed

V = R w (in m/s)

This top has an axial moment of inertia (AMI) of

I₃ = ½ M R² (in kg m²)

and a rotational kinetic energy of

E = ½ I₃ w² (in Joules)

The transverse moment of inertia (TMI) about the contact is

I₁ = M (3 R² + L²) / 12 + M H² (in kg m²)

The critical speed needed to stay up is then

w_c = sqrt(4 I₁ M g H) / I₃ (in rad/s)

where g is the acceleration of gravity in m/s². This means a critical surface speed of

V_c = I₃ w_c (in m/s)

To keep the top up by whipping alone, you'll need a whip and whipper capable of hitting the top at speeds well above V_c with good traction on the top.

Given the human factors involved, whip design has to be full of tricky trade-offs. Other members can  better advise you on that score, but I'd see what you can glean from videos of successful whips for tops about the same size as yours.

[paulstewart]

Wow, thanks for the homework!  I may need some help with the calculations.  My Big Top, Dorothy Dot, measures 95cm tall x 72cm max diameter, 30kg.  Hand carved (hollow) on a lathe, inside and out.  Spin times starting with an impact gun indoors average 6 - 8 minutes.  Reconnecting the impact gun mid spin to extend the time is usually possible provided the top isn't wobbling too much.  However, it would be nice to have human power take over.  I imagine traction of the whip will be key so an average rope might not be ideal.  If there is a rubberized material or similar traction type material that anyone can recommend, that would help.  I can scale images of other whips from videos to get dimensions and play with what works/fails.  Attached is an edited video that does not show the whole spin time, video by Mark Hayward Aug. 2023. Miamisburg, OH.  That's me operating the impact gun.   

The next Big Top (#8) is in planning and hope to have it built over winter. 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Wow, thanks for the homework!  I may need some help with the calculations.  My Big Top, Dorothy Dot, measures 95cm tall x 72cm max diameter, 30kg.  Hand carved (hollow) on a lathe, inside and out.  Spin times starting with an impact gun indoors average 6 - 8 minutes. 

What a beauty! Impressive spin time, too.

The first surface speed formula I gave still applies, but there are no easy formulas for the moments of inertia of a simple solid peg top, let alone a hollow one. And you need at least the axial moment for the energy estimate you're after.

However, there are formulas for the moments of a roughly similar shape — the solid spherical cone. And there are ways to subtract out the moments of the wood lost to hollowing if the finished top's walls are of roughly uniform thickness.

With the following info, I'd be happy to tackle that in a Google sheet you could play with online. (You know you're a hopeless nerd when you enjoy challenges like this.)

Q1. What kind of wood? Same throughout?
Q2. Any steel inside? If so, what size and shape, and where? Weights of the steel parts if you have them?
Q3. What's the dominant wall thickness? Any big departures? Where?
Q4. What's the distance from the contact to the max diameter, taken along the spin axis?
Q5. Long shot: Do you happen to know the distance from the contact to the top's CM, taken along the spin axis?

A rough cutaway sketch of the void and steel with some dimensions would be a big help.

No worries if all this is more work than you bargained for. You could also measure the top's moments with a heavy-duty custom-built trifilar pendulum, but there'd still be time-consuming measurements and calculations after the construction.

However, it would be nice to have human power take over.  I imagine traction of the whip will be key so an average rope might not be ideal.  If there is a rubberized material or similar traction type material that anyone can recommend, that would help.  I can scale images of other whips from videos to get dimensions and play with what works/fails. 

I fear for your top's beautiful paint job. The pole whips in the video jim linked above look promising to me. Strips of leather or vinyl or heavy-duty inner tube come to mind for the soft ends.

With your top's shape, the whippers will need to land their blows near the widest diameter to be effective. Judging from jim's video and the large muscle groups involved, could be a challenge (think golf). Cylindrical whipping tops present a much bigger target area.