David Burke

It is the Social Media challenge taken up by thousands, but the scientific claims behind it are nonsense.

The #broomchallenge has been photographing people around The World and films their brooms that stand upright without support.

Many people have quoted Nasa as the inspiration to do this, and/or published claims to be the broom of gravity or celestial phenomena, such as the reason for the balancing.

"Nasa said, today is the only day it was, a broom stand on its own because of the gravitational force," posted a Twitter user in the United States on Monday in total length, was viewed millions of times and emulates thousands.

But the Space Agency seems to have not made a public statement about the earth's gravitational effect on a broom.

free-standing broom has nothing to do constellations, the full moon, or gravity, with a planet, despite the claims of some social-media users.

So, where this misinformation came from?

Although the earliest uses of #broomchallenge this year have been from users in Mexico to 4. February, one of The First posts-day Nasa came on 8. February.

fact-check says that the broom challenge was widely used before, in February 2012, and is another version of an egg-balancing trick had to do with the spring equinox.

During an equinox the earth's North and South poles are not tilted toward or away from The Sun , which is also the duration of daylight.

In a TV-show in March 2012, now, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said it was not possible to balance a broom or egg same at any time of the year, only the spring equinox.

"If you like The Egg , he explained to long enough, the yolk will come down to the bottom of The Egg , and that is your center of gravity down". "Keep a low center of gravity allows for a fast race car and broom. "

Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist from the University of Oxford, told the BBC she could not believe that the misinformation is spread online.

"Broom balancing in itself is not so impressive. It is a Good Party trick.

"The broom is wide at the bottom and at The Right angle offset

"can We feel the same attraction at all times of the year, so no matter whether it's the spring equinox or not, the way the earth is inclined never The Cause of Ordinary Objects , only the balancing.

"Not even when the earth is tilted, a huge amount, it would make a difference.

"When I saw this today on Social Media and couldn't believe what I saw, in terms of the misinformation has been disseminated.

"It underlines the importance of the Social Media review and trusted sources from the scientific community. "

a: "your broom is able to stand on their own feet, on any day of the year, and Nasa has not said that today was something special, in terms of the"

While the LA-based News 15 meteorologist Cory Smith took a more humorous approach.

He also sees the positive in addressing such misunderstandings.

"While it is disheartening that people believe, a false premise for something like this, it still makes for a fun and easy Social Media challenge and a nice little experiment, to talk about the physics and the center of gravity," Smith told the BBC.

It is not the First Time that Nasa has with the nonsense on Social Media . In 2016, 17 million people Facebook-video-saw-stream-allegedly live broadcast from The International space station,

But,

Nasa has been approached for comment.

Source of news: bbc.com