I'll start my first official science post with the famous "balancing an egg on the equinox" myth. Chances are many of you have heard of this myth and chances are many of you were unaware that it's not true. If you haven't heard of it, do a Google search. There are thousands of sites discussing it. So what's the myth?
Claim: An egg can be balanced on its end, but only on the equinox (first day of spring or first day of fall). The Earth's axis is aligned with it's orbit about the Sun on these days and supposedly a gravitational pull is set up that balances the egg. So the real question is, can you balance an egg on the first day of spring/fall?
Answer: Yes, you certainly can balance an egg on the first day of spring/fall. But you can also balance an egg on the first day of summer, the first day of winter, your birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. In fact, you can balance an egg on its end on any day of the year. The balancing act has nothing to do with Earth's tilt. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. Grab a few eggs and try to balance them. It may take a few minutes and some eggs are more difficult than others, but you'll eventually find one, if not several eggs, that will balance. I suggest starting with the fatter end, but it is possible, although much more difficult, to balance an egg on the narrow end. I do this each year with my high school students in May and each year there's usually one egg that a student is able to balance on the narrow end.
I haven't shown this to my daughters yet, but it's on my list of cool science experiments for this summer.
I'm going to do this with my students in the Fall.
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