Brooms Standing Up Alone

Yesterday a tweet quickly went viral claiming that nasa declared february 10 the only day a broom can stand up on its own because of the gravitational pull cue a plethora of twitter users pulling off magic tricks in the middle of their kitchens by making a broom stand up by itself.

Brooms standing up alone.

This broom standing phenomenon has nothing to do with equinoxes or planetary. Getting a broom to stand alone has nothing to do with the date on the calendar in case you were sucked in by the original tweet. There was a cnn news clip from 2012 that actually dispelled the notion altogether since there is also a theory that the spring equinox causes the same effect as people claimed the elusive feb. It also has nothing to do with the vernal equinox another day of the year when this magic supposedly happens.

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. The broom can stand by itself because the center of gravity is directly above the edge on which it balances. Okay so nasa said today was the only day a broom can stand up on its own because of the gravitational pull. The truth is the idea of a broom standing up by itself because of the earth s gravitational pull is nothing new.