Dynamics of inverting solutions of the tippe top

by Stefan Rauch-Wojciechowski (Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, Sweden)

Thursday 22 May 2014, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula 2 (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio E. Fermi)

The tippe top is a small object (“una specie di trottola”) having the shape of a truncated axially symmetric sphere with a peg attached to its flat surface. When spun sufficiently fast on its spherical bottom the tippe top turns upside down and continues its rotating motion on the peg. In this talk this remarkable phenomenology will be demonstrated and its theoretical understanding, based on classical mechanics, will be discussed. This theory has a long history (since the 19th century); recent progress will be reported (including computer simulatio! ns). This talk should be of interest for the entire physics community, including undergraduate and graduate students.