Equinox has brooms and eggs standing by themselves proves to be a misrepresented balancing act
Equinox has brooms and eggs standing by themselves Because the center of gravity of the broom is directly above the edge on which it balances and the bristles are soft enough to spread out a bit at the contact point to provide a stable base.
Joe Ross, a professor of astronomy and physics at Texas A&M University, said it’s easy to explain why a broom can stand on its bristles unassisted, and it has nothing to do with the planets or anything — or anyone — beyond the planets.
It’s simply a balancing act, he said according to a article on theeagle.com
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.
There is a small reduction in gravitational force when the moon is directly overhead, he said, but it isn’t enough to change the behavior of a broom. Nor is the free-standing broom related to the alignment of the sun, such as the equinox, the two times of the year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are about equal in length. You can read the entire story here.
Equinox has brooms and eggs standing by themselves
The Vernal Equinox
See your local Sun rise and set times—and how the day length changes!
The reason the egg is stabilized in the vertical is from the principle of least action (Fermat’s Principle). According to this new theory, the electrons flow freely up and down the diallel, gravitational-field lines in the egg — reflecting off of the walls of the egg as a natural boundary. The longest direction for the diallel lines, and hence the lowest frequency (lowest energy condition) for their oscillation up and down these diallel lines, is when the egg is vertical. See the energy diagram. Since nature (Fermat’s Principle) tends to the most efficient state, that condition for these free flowing electrons is when the egg is vertical.
Equinox has brooms and eggs standing by themselves
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth‘s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.
At an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and eclipticintersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point and the autumnal point. By extension, the term equinox may denote an equinoctial point.
An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the subsolar point) on the Earth’s equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.
Although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal [day and] night,” this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the “equiluxes” to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days. By convention, equiluxes are the days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.
Equinox has brooms and eggs standing by themselves
Metal Brooms and Eggs are Standing at Attention - but is it due to the Equinox? Maybe Not.
When I was about 9 years old, a friend came to school and told us you could balance an egg up on its end that day. Standing straight and tall, it would not fall over. My intention was to rush home from school that day and try it. Alas, by the time school ended and I arrived home, I had forgotten about the egg and neglected to try it.
However, at a few points over the next few years, I did try it. And it worked.
You can stand an egg up straight on a counter and it will stay and not topple over.
The internet is filled with photos of standing eggs this week because around the Spring Equinox everyone seems to try it and the explanation is that you can only do it on the Spring Equinox due to gravitational forces.
Except, my kids and I have stood an egg on end in November. Autumn Equinox? Perhaps, but if I remember correctly, it was more like November 9th the last time we tried it (which was a couple years ago). And, I believe we tried it once in September as well as it was just a few days into the school year and we stood an egg on its end. That blows the Equinox theory.
I think instead, people really only try the 'standing egg trick' when it's a hot conversational topic - which is around the Spring or Autumn Equinox - and don't think to try it at other times of the year, so maybe that is why people think you can only do it then.
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| My nephew standing eggs upright on our counter yesterday - March 10th |
Yesterday, we had out of town guests arrive. My brother, his wife and my three nephews arrived from out of state and with them came the tale of the stand alone broom. His wife is a teacher and as he arrived at the school to see her yesterday there was a broom standing alone in the hallway. All alone. Nothing touching it and nothing holding it up. Someone at the school had heard you could stand a metal broom up yesterday without anything holding it and because of the gravitational pull due to the Equinox, it would stand alone.
Of course we had to try it, right? We grabbed a broom out of the closet.
And, sure enough, it worked!
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| Brooms and Eggs Standing Alone on March 10, 2012 |
I can tell you, without a doubt that it works. At least it did yesterday.
But... like the egg balancing myth that you can *only* balance an egg on end on the Spring Equinox, can you *only* balance a broom on end during the same time? Probably not. A quick scan of the internet this morning (really quick... like, 5 or 6 searches and skim reading) tells me that people have stood brooms and eggs on end at various times of the year and perhaps it has nothing to do with the Equinox.
This interview I found in a Texas paper summed up one opinion in plain, easy to read English, so I'll put a snippet of it here;
".......... Joe Ross, a professor of astronomy and physics at Texas A&M University, said it's easy to explain why a broom can stand on its bristles unassisted, and it has nothing to do with the planets or anything -- or anyone -- beyond 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.
There is a small reduction in gravitational force when the moon is directly overhead, he said, but it isn't enough to change the behavior of a broom. Nor is the free-standing broom related to the alignment of the sun, such as the equinox, the two times of the year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are about equal in length.
The broom can stand by itself, he said, because the center of gravity is directly above the edge on which it balances."
For myself, I know eggs will balance at various times of year (when I or my kids remember to test the theory) and I suppose I'll also be testing the broom trick in the future as well. Perhaps in June and again in August or September - just to see if balances at other times of the year.
Still, we had fun balancing eggs and brooms yesterday and of course, taking photos. I'm just not sure it has anything to do with the Equinox. But... I'll find in another month or so!
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