The Driven Spinning Top: Much Fun and Much Science

Florin D Grosu1; Alina Rapa2; Ioan N Grosu3; 4

The Driven Spinning Top: Much Fun and Much Science

Florin D Grosu¹, Alina Rapa², Ioan N Grosu^3,4*

¹Faculty of Medicine, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania

²ACP Department, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Metro Vancouver, Canada

³Department of Chemistry, Alexandra Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania

⁴Medical Bioengineering, Grigore T Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

^*Corresponding author: Ioan N Grosu, Department of Chemistry, Alexandra IoanCuza University, Iasi, Romania. Tel: +40726024330; Email: ioan.grosu@chem.uaic.ro

Received Date: 15 May, 2017; Accepted Date: 02 June, 2017; Published Date: 09 June, 2017

Citation: Grosu FD, Rapa A, Grosu IN (2017) The Driven Spinning Top: Much Fun and Much Science. Educ Res Appl: ERCA-121. DOI: 10.29011/2575-7032/100021

Using 2 permanent magnets any Spinning Top (ST) can be changed to be controllable. The new Driven Spinning Top(DST) is qualitatively superior to the classical ST. Construction details are given and 2 games are suggested. Rotational motion, precession motion, Bernoulli law can be easier understood by playing with DST. It is magic, interactive, educative, scientific, improves patience, practical skills, coordination hand-eye and offers 3 new technical solutions and can trigger new technical ideas.

Introduction

If we have two STs in rotation and we lift one of them like in (Figure 2) and let its bottom on the top of the 2^nd ST then the 2 STs will be connected and we can lift them like in (Figure 3). Figure 3 shows the 3^rd new technical solution: a chain of STs in rotation.

Using the DST presented at least 2 games can be proposed. One is to drive the DST along an itinerary marked with points (Figure 4).Starting from center the DST is guided to the semicircle with number 1 and 1 point has been gained and so on. Another one is to play TOPBALL (in analogy with football, volleyball, basketball); 2 players (each with a DST) hit a glass ball toward the opponent’s gate (Figure 5). No more explanations are needed for school children.

Benefits of the Driven Spinning Top

There are 2 types of benefits: fun (as a toy) and science (like a didactic device). Students of all ages enjoy to play DST. By playing they experience, they feel the vibrations of the 2^nd magnet in their hands. DST is magic, interactive, educative, scientific, improves patience, practical skills, offers 3 technical solutions. The 1^st game (Figure 4) can measure the sum of several skills (launching, driving, keeping a distance of 2-3cm between 2 magnets, having patience to move it slowly with 1-2 mm/second). So, this game can be used like a quantitative method of measurement of these skills. Also, it can be used to monitor the progress of the skills by exercising. The 2^nd game (Figure 5) also: the score is a very quantitative result like in football.

By playing with DST students have a great chance to understand better and easier some Physics and some Engineering. Rotational motion can be well understood and in a very safely manner. Even if for primary school students the law of conservation of angular momentum is rather difficult to teach but they will have a feeling of it: if we have the case of (Figure 2) and we shake the hand the ST will be released and it will continue to rotate. Later can be explained that no torque was involved and this is why the rotation is not disturbed.

If 2 DSTs are in rotation we can manage to have them close enough (8-10 mm apart) and from this distance we can observe that they attract each other, collide and run away one from another. Attraction is because of Bernoulli law from fluidics and repulsion is because of collision. This is observed in game 2 (Figure 5).

A great point is precession motion. When rotation is nearly stopped we observe a precession. But this is not so important. If we hold the 2^nd magnet obliquely above the ST then a precession motion is observed. It means that the precession is obtained when an object with angular momentum and magnetic moment is subject to an external magnetic field. This is the case for protons in external magnetic field. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is obtained when an external electromagnetic signal is pumped and protons change one orientation to another one against external magnetic field constant. NMR is the core physical phenomenon at Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI) that are great noninvasive tools for physics, chemistry, biology and medicine (fMRI tomograph). From here can be seen the multidisciplinary use of NMR. We mention here that the precession of nuclear spin around external magnetic field is not intuitive at all in all handbooks of physics and chemistry. Playing with DST helps to understand easier and deeper NMR.

In the last 15 years a new scientific branch appeared: Spintronics (http://www.spintronics-info.com). It deals with spins up and down and aims to build even quicker computers and other devices (including medical ones) along with all nanotechnology achievements.

Finally, we note that all celestial bodies are STs and at the atomic level particles have spin (angular momentum) and magnetic moment it means that they are DSTs.

Discussions

The technology is moving at a pace we never imagined before. The digital era is here everywhere. Children (even very kids) enjoy using it. The Education have to adapt itself and to adopt what digital facilities offer. There is here a great lesson we learn. When there is an interest no difficulty can impede the students to learn. The mobile’s menu contains a lot of knowledge. If this amount of knowledge could not be of their much interest it would need one semester of teaching and a lot of complains and sighs of a yawning audience. While scientific literature presents research results on students’ attitude to science [7,8]and primary teachers’ attitude toward science [9] it seems that no efforts have been spent to push children to learn mobile’s menu. The only answer is that they have interest. The Science Education should use this wave of interest in its interest. There are some results to use smartphones in physics laboratory [10,11].

On the other hand, digital devices are not everything or in other words touching screens and clicking on the mouse is not a balanced education. Digital devices help to manage information, communication but classical sciences like Mechanics or Thermodynamics cannot be replaced. The ideal would be to make all sciences as interesting as smartphones. This is not possible but efforts should be made constantly.

Judging after the preliminary results, we believe that DST has enoughmagic to be of interest. In addition, it has a challenge: “Let me try” or “Maybe I succeed”. Here the sequence “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”. Playing with DST is a genuine 3Hs: hands-on, heads-on, hearts-on activity [12]. At last but not at least DST is a gender-neutral toy [13,14] and can help to improve practical skills [15]. We do believe that a popular use of DST will trigger new technical ideas and new benefits will be suggested by students and teachers. Once the principles are revealed, several improvements and optimizations can be done in terms of dimensions, materials used and this is an invitation for researchers, engineers, teachers and students.

Figure 1: Axial Section of the DST. 1-1^st Magnet, 2-2^nd Magnet,3-Wood,4-Axis,5-Iron Ball,6-Rotation,7-Move of the 2^nd Magnet, 8-Move of the ST,9-Iron Ball.

Figure 2: The 2 Magnets are stuck together with the ball between them. ST keeps rotating.

Figure 3: Chain of rotating STs.

Figure 4: A plastified A4 sheet of paper that helps to play visiting rectangles.

Figure 5: A plastified sheet of paper with 2 gates marked helps to play TOPBALL.

The Driven Spinning Top: Much Fun and Much Science

Educational Research Applications