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Spherical Tippe Tops

Article  in  The Physics Teacher · March 2013

DOI: 10.1119/1.4792006

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Rod Cross
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 Spherical tippe tops

A tippe top is usually constructed as a truncated sphere with a cylindrical peg on top,
as indicated in Fig. 1(a). When spun rapidly on a horizontal surface, a tippe top spins
about a vertical axis while rotating slowly about a horizontal axis until the peg touches
the surface. At that point, weight is transferred to the peg, the truncated sphere rises off
the surface, and the top spins on the peg until it is upright. A feature of a tippe top is
that its center of mass, labelled G in Fig. 1, is below the geometric center of the sphere,
C, when the top is at rest. That is where it will return if the top is tilted sideways and
released since that is the stable equilibrium position. The fact that a tippe top turns
upside down when it spins is therefore astonishing. The behaviour of a tippe top is quite
unlike that of a regular top since the spin axis remains closely vertical the whole time.
The center of mass of a regular top can also rise, but the spin axis tilts upward as the top
rises and enters a “sleeping” position.

(a ) (b ) (c)
m

G C
C C G
G m

Figure 1: Three different tops showing (a) a tippe top (b) a solid sphere with a small mass m
attached to the outer surface and (c) a hollow sphere with a small mass m attached to the inside
surface. G is the center of mass and C is the geometric center of the sphere.

An interesting question is whether a tippe top can be constructed from an ordinary sphere
with a small mass attached, as indicated in Fig. 1(b) or Fig. 1(c). The small mass will
shift the center of mass of the top away from the geometric center, so in theory the tops
in Figs. 1(b) and (c) might also be expected to work as tippe tops. There is a practical
difficulty with top (b) in that the mass m can’t be located at the bottom, but the top can
be started from an inclined position with m near but not touching the horizontal surface.
A practical difficulty with top (c) is inserting a mass inside a hollow sphere, but a suitable
sphere should be readily available at a toy shop or office supply shop. It needs to be
constructed from two halves that push or screw together neatly.

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The author constructed tops (b) and (c) and discovered that top (b) doesn’t work as a
fully inverting tippe top, but top (c) does. If the mass m in top (b) is started near the
horizontal surface, it rises to about the equator but doesn’t rise any further. If the mass
m in top (c) starts at the bottom, as in Fig. 2, it ends up at the top. If m in top (c) starts
at the top it stays at the top.

Figure 2: A conventional hollow plastic tippe top on the left and a spherical tippe top on the
right. The one on the right is hollow but has a small piece of Blu-tak stuck to the bottom.

Others have studied spherical tops and have even constructed spherical tippe tops by 3D
printing.1 The critical factors are the distance, a, between C and G, the radius, R, of the
sphere, the moment of inertia, I1 , of the top for rotation about an axis passing through C
and G, and the moment of inertia, I2 , for rotation about a perpendicular axis through G.
In order to function as a tippe top, it is necessary1 that
a I2 a
1− < <1+ . (1)
R I1 R
For a solid sphere of mass M , I1 = 2M R2 /5. For a thin spherical shell of mass M ,
I1 = 2M R2 /3. Any additional mass located on the axis through C and G does not add
to I1 but it does alter I2 and it shifts the center of mass. If m is added at radius R then
a x
= (2)
R 1+x
where x = m/M . The ratio I2 /I1 is then (1 + 3.5x)/(1 + x) for a solid sphere or (1 +
2.5x)/(1 + x) for a hollow sphere. For example, suppose that x = 0.1. Then 1 + a/R =
1.091, while I2 /I1 = 1.227 for a solid sphere or I2 /I1 = 1.136 for a hollow sphere. Neither a

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solid or a hollow sphere should work as a tippe top according to this calculation, although
a hollow sphere should almost work. To function as a tippe top, the mass m needs to be
located closer to the center of the sphere. Alternatively, m can take the form of a circular
ring attached to the inside surface of a hollow sphere since the center of mass of the ring
is then located inside the sphere.

It turned out that the green half of the hollow sphere in Fig. 2 was slightly heavier than
the clear half, allowing the hollow sphere to function as a tippe top. It didn’t tell me how
a tippe top actually works, but a relatively simple account is given by Pliskin.2 Most other
explanations tend to be highly mathematical. All rely on friction at the base of the top
to turn it. None take into account the fact that a tippe top actually jumps off the surface
several times by one or two mm while it rises, at least if it is spinning rapidly, as shown
in Fig. 3.

Figure 3: Tippe top spinning on a sheet of aluminum, filmed at 300 fps.

Insights into the behaviour of a spherical tippe top can be obtained by considering the
geometry shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b). Suppose that a steel ball of mass m sits freely inside
a hollow sphere that is rotating about a vertical axis at angular velocity ω. The ball
will rise to a point at distance Y below the center of the sphere where N sin θ = mg and
N cos θ = mXω 2 , N being the normal reaction force on the ball. Since tan θ = Y /X, we
find that Y = g/ω 2 . For example, if ω = 100 rad/s then Y = 1 mm. Even at relatively
low values of the spin, the ball will rise almost to the equator. The same effect can be
expected if the steel ball is attached to the hollow sphere, or even if it is attached to the

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outside of a solid sphere, in which case the whole sphere will rotate with the ball until the
ball is near the equator. That was the result observed with the top in Fig. 1(b).

(a) ω (b) ω

m X

Y
R R
N
Y
θ
X
mg

Figure 4: (a) A small mass m located inside a spinning hollow sphere will rise to a point near
the equator even at relatively low spin frequencies. (b) If the mass m is attached to a spinning
sphere and is located above the equator then the total energy decreases as m rises, provided that
ω remains approximately constant and is sufficiently large.

If the ball is attached to the sphere and makes it to the top half of the sphere, then
its total energy is mgY + 0.5mX 2 ω 2 where X 2 + Y 2 = R2 . An increase in Y results
in a decrease in X. Consequently, an increase in the potential energy of the ball would
normally be expected to result in a decrease in the kinetic energy of the ball. However, the
result depends on whether ω increases or decreases when Y increases. If the total angular
momentum of the ball and the sphere is conserved, then ω will increase when the ball
rises due to the decrease in the moment of inertia of the system. In that case, the total
energy of the system would increase, in the same way that the total energy increases when
a ballet dancer decreases her moment of inertia to spin faster. That is, if I1 ω1 = I2 ω2 and
I2 < I1 then 0.5I2 ω2 2 > 0.5I1 ω1 2 . There is no energy source available in the arrangement
depicted in Fig. 4(b) to increase the total energy so the ball would be unable to rise if
angular momentum was conserved. In fact, friction acts to decrease the total energy and
it also acts to decrease the angular momentum.

Friction between the sphere shown in Fig. 2 and the surface was found to result in a
decrease in ω with time, despite the fact that the moment of inertia decreased with time
while the top inverted. Suppose that the friction force is reduced by just the right amount
that ω remains constant in time. Then the kinetic energy of the sphere will remain constant

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 in time, while the total energy of the ball will depend on how fast the sphere is spinning.
For a sphere of radius R ∼ 30 mm, it is easy to show that the total energy of the ball
will decrease when the ball rises, provided ω is greater than about 50 rad/s. In that case,
energy loss due to friction can occur only if the ball rises. In other cases, a simple energy
argument cannot be used to predict the outcome. For example, a decrease in the total
energy of the ball and the sphere would also occur if ω decreased with time while the ball
remained near the equator. A more detailed analysis would be required to determine the
outcome. A given frictional torque will reduce both the angular momentum and the total
energy by amounts that may require a rise in the height of the ball, depending on the
change in both the angular velocity and the moment of inertia of the system. An analysis
of the latter type1,3 shows that the Jellett constant, J, is conserved. J represents a linear
combination of the angular momentum about the vertical axis and the angular momentum
about the axis through C and G.

1. M.C. Ciocci, B. Malengier, B. Langerock and B. Grimonprez, “Towards a prototype of

a spherical tippe top,” J. Appl. Math. 2012 Article ID 268537 (2012) Hindawi Publishing.

2. W.A. Pliskin, “The tippe top (topsy-turvey top),” Am. J. Phys. 22, 28-32 (1954).

3. C.G. Gray and B.G. Nickel, “Constants of motion for nonslipping tippe tops and other
tops with round pegs,” Am. J. Phys. 68, 821-828 (2000).

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