Do Eggs And Brooms Really Balance Because Of The Equinox?
As I was watching the evening news last night I heard my wife yell,”It works, it really works!” She had just successfully got a broom to balance straight up.
Do Eggs And Brooms Really Balance Because Of The Equinox?
As I was watching the evening news last night I heard my wife yell,”It works, it really works!” She had just successfully got a broom to balance straight up. One of her friends told her that the gravitational pull this time of year is strong and it allows brooms and other things like eggs to balance unassisted. Is that true? The broom actually stayed in position for nearly 20 minutes. That made me wonder: is there any truth to this gravitational pull theory? It is definitely real when it comes to balancing, but is it caused by gravitational pull?
Joe Ross, a professor of astronomy and physics at Texas A&M University explained that it has nothing to do with the planets — it’s simply a balancing act, he said.
“One thing I can say with certainty, the pull of the moon has nothing to do with this phenomenon,” said Ross.
If the moon’s pull was enough to cancel the force of gravity and make brooms spontaneously stand up, Ross said, they would also be able to float.
The broom can stand by itself, he said, because the center of gravity is directly above the edge on which it balances. And the bristles are soft enough to spread out a bit at the contact point with the floor and provide a stable base to support the handle and allow the broom to balance.
So, there you have it. It’s simple physics. I posted the picture on my Facebook page and had many of my friends reply back that they were able to do it, too. Try it for yourself!