Balancing brooms.

Okay, I don't know about you, but lately my newsfeed has been taken over by pictures of people balancing their brooms. Most of the captions read a little like this: "OMG! This is so creepy! My broom is standing up all by itself!" And there's always at least one helpful comment to explain it: "On leap years/when the planets align/during the vernal equinox the tilt of the earth is different or something in the gravitational pull changes that makes it possible for your broom to stand up."

Riiiiiight.

I don't buy it. I'll bet it's something far less exciting. But since I took elementary school science, I know the importance of conducting experiments to test hypotheses. So let's do it, shall we?

This broom stands up on it's own. Gasp! 

Amazing, right?

The Internet is telling me that this is possible because of with the earth's gravitational pull being weird and some other sciency stuff. But wait! Gravity affects things other than brooms, right?? So if that gravity thing is true, other objects (say, a pencil) would do the same. Or maybe they'd even float or something. So let's see if this pencil can stand on end too! I'm so excited!

Take one.

Not this time.

Still nothing.

Well dang it.

I guess it's got nothing to do with some cool astrological phenomenon, and more to do with the fact that the bristles spread out and create a nice base on which the broom can stand.

But if you don't believe me, (which is fair -- I do communications, not science), maybe ask this guy. He might know something about it.

Sorry to burst your bubble. It's not some crazy awesome vernal equinox thing that's making those brooms stand upright. But the fact that I'm still standing upright after six hours of presentations yesterday? That's nothing short of miraculous.