Quote:EMBRACING THE SHAPE AND AXIS
Or why tips move differently.
To better illustrate the following points, we will only consider two types of tips : round ones, and flat ones. The Beyblades are launched without an angle, to make matters simple.
If both are spun on the same flat surface, such as any table, they will already move differently. The flat tip will bring the Beyblade farther and more quickly because it has more surface of contact with the surface than a ball tip, unless the latter is wide. Because there is more friction between the flat tip and the floor and that there is also a rotation involved, the spinning top’s axis is destabilized slightly, which causes it to move more. However, beyblading is not officially done in flat areas : the stadiums have certain inclinations that flatten in the centre. It is exactly those inclinations, as small as they could be, that make all the difference in the movements the Beyblades will make.
Round Bottoms have a lot of stability : they are designed to stay upright even if the Beyblade’s axis is not perpendicular to the stadium floor. Therefore, they simply slide down towards the centre of the dish and remain there, stable. For flat tips though, the phenomenon is completely different : it is flat at a 90 degrees angle, and consequently cannot remain calmly standing on an inclined surface. Since it has just been launched however, the Beyblade has enough velocity to spin and fight to stay slightly balanced. It is that fight for control that creates the circular patterns we witness when attack Beyblades with flat tips are used. Since the spinning top is always rotating only on the circumference of the tip (which is also why those flat tips are round and not rectangular, for instance) because it wants to keep its axis parallel with gravity and its centre of gravity always right above its tip until precession starts, it begins a motion that follows the curves of the stadium floor. When too much friction has acted on the top and that it does not have enough energy to keep circulating around, it slowly moves towards the centre of the stadium, and spins there for a short time because of the flatter area, before ceasing to rotate on itself.
If tips are regular, like the Wide Ball Bottom, they move regularly on surfaces. However, the more irregular tips are, the wider their range of movement patterns will be because they will have to adapt a lot more to all the surfaces and their shape.
With help from asafarakaratara again. Everything should be right.
Still a so-so diagram :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/K...sMove1.jpg
Benkei, I will see what I can do.