Eggsactly! (sorry)
So now that I've finished "Packing for Mars," which had been my lunchtime-and-coffee-break reading, I'm on to "Bad Astronomy," by the venerable Phil Plait, a hero of the skeptic/humanist movement. So you can expect frequent Science Factoids and Misconceptions from the day's perusal of the book.
Today's question: Can you balance an egg on its end during the vernal equinox?
Answer: Absolutely, you can. You can do it any other day of the year, too. It just takes patience, and having an egg with a bumpy end helps.
Naturally the equinox has nothing to do with it. There's nothing special about that day except what it in fact means, that the sun is passing from the northern to the southern hemisphere, which has no effect on gravity or egg balancing or anything like that. It's the same thing that happens on the autumnal equinox but nobody talks about balancing eggs on that day. But the legend has a specific origin, interestingly, given that so many legends have origins shrouded in mystery. It was a piece in Life magazine about a Chinese celebration day of the first day of spring where people balanced eggs...for some reason. It got repeated. A lot.
The fact that the Chinese celebrate the first day of spring six weeks before the equinox and not ON the equinox like we do got lost somewhere.
Today's question: Can you balance an egg on its end during the vernal equinox?
Answer: Absolutely, you can. You can do it any other day of the year, too. It just takes patience, and having an egg with a bumpy end helps.
Naturally the equinox has nothing to do with it. There's nothing special about that day except what it in fact means, that the sun is passing from the northern to the southern hemisphere, which has no effect on gravity or egg balancing or anything like that. It's the same thing that happens on the autumnal equinox but nobody talks about balancing eggs on that day. But the legend has a specific origin, interestingly, given that so many legends have origins shrouded in mystery. It was a piece in Life magazine about a Chinese celebration day of the first day of spring where people balanced eggs...for some reason. It got repeated. A lot.
The fact that the Chinese celebrate the first day of spring six weeks before the equinox and not ON the equinox like we do got lost somewhere.