March 20th marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. It's a special day of the year, when many people seem to think special things can happen, like balancing eggs on end or brooms on their bristles.
Is there any science behind the myth?
It's true that you can balance an egg on its end on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. However, you can also balance an egg on the day before the equinox, the day after, or on any day of the year.
"There's something special about the vernal equinox, but it doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you can balance an egg," said Coastal Carolina University physics professor Teresa Burns.
What's special about the vernal equinox, Burns said, is that on that day the axis of the earth lines up with the axis of the sun, making the length of our day and night just about equal.
That's the science part. And the egg part? "It really is just a party trick that you can do any day of the year," she said.
There's another craze going around on Facebook and a number of other websites that's all about balancing a broom on its bristles. Again, some people think that can only be done on the vernal equinox or when the planets align or some other such thing. Nope. Burns said you can do it any day. It just takes practice.
Burns speculates that, many years ago, someone probably balanced an egg on the first day of spring and just came to the conclusion that there must be some scientific reason for it.
"We know that the vernal equinox has to do with the lining up of stuff and gravity, so therefore, that is why we must be able to balance eggs on the vernal equinox," Burns said.
But she said the real science from all this is about finding evidence to support your belief. In other words, don't just balance an egg on that one day of the year and then assume that's the only day you can do it. "You have to try it other times, too, right? And that's the important part of science, I think."
On the first day of class last August, Professor Burns had her freshmen physics students balance some eggs on end, just to prove that it can be done on any day.
