I overengineered a spinning top [video]

For a real spinning top over engineered https://youtu.be/QLTsxXNekVE?si=S31kpZQHiYlUSedx

Freaked me out for a second and had to double check that my tablet comes with a stop watch without having to download an app WITH ADS!!!!! Does he earn money for displaying these ads in his video too? I find it hard to believe that a content creator with sponsors is forced to use an ad supported app. Something about it being a stopwatch really just adds the cherry on top

There is a Japanese show that made a Scientist vs Engineers version to build the best Spinning Top: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q-hcidtjiM

Awesome!

I saw this and, while interesting and impressive, this isn't really a spinning top. It's a gyroscope. I was hoping for a real like "I cast metal into the perfect shape that I physically derived somehow to last as long as possible" or something similar not just "I put a motor in a case and it spins"

Excellent!

At around the end of the fidget spinner craze I thought "but what would it take to make it spin by its own?" And it turned out, not much. Just put one magnet at each of the three ends, and have some pulsating magnet near it (next to it, or under it hidden in some kind of base), and there! you have a basic electric motor that seems entirely magical.

It was a really fun experiment; I even toyed with doing a small production run but by the time I was almost ready the craze had passed.

Reminds me of this little top, which actually works quite well: https://limbo.top/

Saw this last week, really enjoyed the tenacity in problem-solving!!

Did make me wonder if you could build a solid state one using well-timed pulses through an electromagnet that provide torque through the field interaction with the earth's magnetic field.

Not much torque available there obviously, but on a per-revolution basis you don't need much.

I love projects like this. Taking something trivially simple and asking "but what if we really optimized it?"

The material science discussion in these comments is fascinating. Never thought about how the contact point geometry matters so much. Diamond tip makes intuitive sense for hardness, but then you need something it can spin on without scratching...

My mind immediately went towards Battlebots when I saw electronics getting involved. I wonder what else would need to be done to make this steerable over RC? There may be a lower weight class where some nicely CNC'ed 'Phantasm Orbs' can score reasonable points.

This is fun, well done. Quite a performance to reach 2 hours on that little battery. Perhaps Euler disks are next?

These would make great pomodoro timers.

Entertaining, but holy cow that music distracts from the content.

I like it, but part of me thinks that spinning tops should be without IC and batteries. I don't mind some steampunk clockwork mechanisms though.

this guy is super great but wow do the juvenile sexist comments he makes (over and over again, tripling down on them) detract from the overall value of the video. Would female engineering students really appreciate all that? I think not

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