Standing Broom Challenge

Standing broom ‘challenge’ is just everyday science!

Chances are if you have lived long enough, you have may have seen this one come around before. In the last few days, thousands of posts have flooded social media feeds about the broom challenge. Many of the posts claim that, on that specific day, the tilt of the earth’s axis is just right and will allow you to balance a broom on its bristles standing up. While standing a broom up on its bristles is very satisfying and borderline magical, it does not rise to the fact of rare science. The earth’s axis is always tilted at a 23.5 angle, so there is no point in time. In addition, even if the earth’s tilt did change, that would not alter its sense of gravity or how gravity affects objects. We would all be in a lot of trouble in gravity on Earth’s surface was altered in any way.