BROOM CHALLENGE DEBUNKED!
We hate to break it to you!
The “Broom Challenge” came from a viral tweet that claimed NASA had said Monday was the only day a broom could stand on its own because of the Earth’s gravitational pull. First of all, there hasn’t been any evidence to support the claim that NASA had ever made such an announcement. The tweet was accompanied by a video shot from a woman’s point of view as she delicately stood a broom up and watched as it balanced itself. It BLEW UP on social media! The public affairs officer for NASA, said, “This is another social media hoax that exemplifies how quickly pseudoscience and false claims can go viral,” Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist, claims the party trick can be done anytime during the year at any point of the day: “I hate to be that astronomer, but the planets don’t care about your broom. The trick has less to do with the Earth’s gravitational pull and more to do with the object’s center of gravity. Brooms have a low center of gravity, which allows them to balance effortlessly on their bristles, he said.
