

The best balance there is on the Spring Equinox itself is the tilt of the Earth since that is the moment when the sun’s most direct rays cross the Earth’s equator.

Patrick’s Day is the closest we get to balancing day and night with 11 hours and 59 minutes of daylight.
#Broom standing up equinox full
This is partly due to atmospheric refraction, as the sun’s light bends as it passes through our atmosphere, and partly because the sun isn’t just a point but a full circle and we get a few extra minutes as we count the daylight when the top of that solar circle rises above the horizon until the last edge of the circle disappear below the horizon.St. We actually have 12 hours and 9 minutes of daytime by the Vernal Equinox. The same goes for balancing an egg, with a bit of practice and patience you can get it to stand on its end any day of the year… and it doesn’t have to be hard boiled.Īnd don’t expect a perfect balance of day and night on the Equinox despite it’s Latin definition meaning “equal night”. The wider the bottom bristles are the easier it will be to balance, just like it’s easier to stand on two legs than trying to balance on one. There is nothing special about the equinox that changes gravity, you don’t have to be a meteorologist either, it's all about finding the broom’s center of gravity and balancing it from there. "When you're done balancing your broom, you can go outside and see five planets in the sky at night," he said.You can balance a broom any day of the year. Stargazers can point out Mercury and Venus right after sunset and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn right before sunrise.

The myth of the magic broom has circulated as early as 2012 and seems to surface every year during the spring equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, according to a CNN video. This year, the spring equinox isn't until March 19.īut there is a special occurrence happening in our solar system this year, Sutter said. In February, Earth is sharing the same side of the solar system as five other planets in a planetary alignment, making them more visible to the human eye. The debunked broom challenge is also nothing new. Brooms have a low center of gravity, which allows them to balance effortlessly on their bristles, he said. The trick has less to do with the Earth’s gravitational pull on a certain day and more to do with the object’s center of gravity. "I hate to be that astronomer, but the planets don't care about your broom," he told USA TODAY. Paul Sutter, astrophysicist and author of " Your Place in the Universe," says the party trick can be done anytime during the year at any point of the day. "This is another social media hoax that exemplifies how quickly pseudoscience and false claims can go viral," she said. Karen Northon, public affairs officer for NASA headquarters, told USA TODAY Tuesday that while the broom hoax was "harmless," it's important to fact-check and research "before jumping into the latest viral craze." The tweet was shared almost 50,000 times and prompted others to record themselves as they tried the broom challenge.Įven celebrities and sports teams got into the broom challenge groove and shared their videos on Twitter. Start the day smarter: Get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox Straight, angled, synthetic and corn brooms all seem to be held into place. The tweet was accompanied by a video shot from a woman’s point of view as she delicately stood a broom up and watched as it balanced itself. Its an old tradition: people stand up brooms on the day of the spring equinox. There hasn't been any evidence to support the claim that NASA had ever made such an announcement. The "Broom Challenge" came from a viral tweet that claimed NASA had said Monday was the only day a broom could stand on its own because of the Earth’s gravitational pull. Watch Video: Broom Challenge: Viral post shows brooms standing on their ownĪ new trend is "sweeping" the nation, and unfortunately, it's based on faulty science.
