A spinning top demonstrates gyroscopic precession: as friction bleeds off its spin angular momentum, gravity's torque about the contact point causes the spin axis to sweep around in a cone (precession) while nutating and gradually toppling. The simulation is not a full rigid-body solver — it drives tilt, precession angle and spin angle directly each frame with a simplified analytic relation (precession speed roughly inversely proportional to spin rate) using explicit Euler time-stepping, then rebuilds the top's orientation via chained quaternion-free Euler rotations. A fading additive-blended point trail traces the tip's path through space.
Trail points
140
Ambient sparks
200
Render
Lathe mesh + additive Points trail
Physics model
Simplified gyroscopic precession
Max spin rate
90 rad/s