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 top ten valentine gifts for her 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 upright 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.