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Spinning tops

Spinning tops

📖 In short

A spinning top is an old toy children love, spinning fast on a pointed tip. It's often shaped like a cone or a pear and made of wood, metal or plastic. In Arab countries it has many names: bulbul, nahla, dawwama and bakra.

🤩 Did you know?

  • The spinning top is one of the oldest children's toys in the world.
  • Children sometimes compete: whose top will spin the longest?
  • The idea of the spinning top is used in instruments on planes and ships to keep them stable.
  • The Earth itself spins like a giant top!

🔎 Find out more

🌟 How does it spin?

The child winds a string around the top, then throws it on the ground while pulling the string fast, so it spins very fast on its point. Some are spun with the fingers or with a button you press.

🔍 Why doesn't it fall?

As long as the top spins fast, it stays upright and balanced. When it slows down it starts to wobble, then falls on its side. Spinning fast is the secret of its balance.

💡 The bee's buzz

Some tops are hollow with holes in them, and when they spin they make a sound like a buzzing bee or wasp, which is why one name for them is “nahla” (bee).

🎯 In Arabic poetry

The Arabs have known the spinning top for a very long time: the poet Imru' al-Qays compared his mare's speed to a top spun by a child.

📸 More pictures

Spinning tops

🧩 Test yourself

1 What's the secret that keeps a top upright?

2 Which Arab poet mentioned the spinning top in his poetry?

3 Which picture shows “Spinning tops”?

⚽ Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons