Take off your shoe, and toss it in to the air, making it spin along its long (toe-to-heel) axis. The same happens when you spin the shoe about its shortest (top-to-bottom) axis. But something unexpect...Take off your shoe, and toss it in to the air, making it spin along its long (toe-to-heel) axis. The same happens when you spin the shoe about its shortest (top-to-bottom) axis. But something unexpected happens when you spin it about its third (left-to-right) axis, which is intermediate in length between the other two. Instead of a steady pattern of rotation, you will observe something more complicated, with the shoe changing its orientation with respect to the rotation axis.
