Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the toy. A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few seconds, spin top 10 valentine gifts for wife for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy, and finally tip over and roll on its side. Tops exist in many variations and materials, chiefly wood, metal, and plastic, often with a metal tip.

Such toys have been used since antiquity in solitary or competitive games, where each player tries to keep one’s top spinning for as long as possible, or achieve some other goal. The ubiquity of spinning tops lends to the fact that the toy is used to name many living things such as Cyclosa turbinata, whose name comes from the Latin roots for spinning top. The top is one of the oldest recognizable toys found on archaeological sites. Spinning tops originated independently in cultures all over the world. Tops were used as toys in ancient Rome. Besides toys, tops have also historically been used for gambling and prophecy. Maxwell took this a step further by using a circular scale around the rim with which to measure the ratios of the primaries, choosing vermilion, emerald, and ultramarine.