Winter officially ended at 1:14 a.m. EST on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, making today the first full day of spring! Did you try to balance an egg on its end? Myth says the the Spring and Fall equinoxes are the only times you can balance and egg on its tip, but is this true? Check this out:
You can actually balance an egg on its end on the Vernal Equinox. Just ask anybody who's ever tried.
Of course, they'll probably neglect to tell you that you can also perform this feat any other day of the year. That's because it has nothing to do with celestial alignment.
The reasonings behind egg-balancing are creaky. The typical ramifications are based on gravity. According to these theories, gravity is 'balanced' when the Sun is over the Earth's equator; alternatively, the Sun exerts significantly greater gravitational attraction on the Earth during the equinoxes. And, as mentioned earlier, there are some who assert that the particular line-up of the Sun, Earth and Egg are just right for this balancing feat…
…there is one very simple way of verifying whatever truth there may be to this legend. If it is true that you can only balance an egg on the Vernal Equinox, it would stand to reason that you should not be able to accomplish this on any other day.
Alas for the Vernal Equinox vigilants, scientists and students alike have blown the theory completely out of the water. Fired by his scepticism, Philip Plait, author of the book Bad Astronomy set out to balance eggs on his kitchen counter, and with the help of his wife, managed a grand total of eight. Then he contacted the weatherman of a local TV station, who excitedly quizzed his crew on the validity of the equinox theory. A sportscaster believed that the equinox had nothing to do with egg-balancing; two news anchors did. Three guesses as to which one managed to get his egg to balance.
Read the whole article here: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A2181377
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