I didn’t even know about this myth – but apparently some people believe that the equinoxes are the only day of the year when you can balance eggs on their ends (riiiight).
Twice a year the path of the Sun crosses the Earth’s equator, making night and day precisely the same length. Most people know these days as the start of springtime (the vernal equinox) and the start of autumn (the autumnal equinox). Of course the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere is the autumnal equinox in the South, and so on. The northern automnal equinox takes place tomorrow!
Anyway so today’s APOD shows photographic evidence that this is not the case, courtesy of mr. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, who managed the extraordinary feat in late October back in 1998.
Oh look, he even posted a little video with instructions on how to repeat the experiment with your own equipment. In that case, I’ll excuse him the sloppiness of the original experiment in showing no evidence of the date the photo was taken.
Clap clap.
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