The Equinox Fallacy

My friend’s 18^th birthday party fell on March 20^th 2003, spring equinox. One partygoer was quick to point this out, and mentioned that since it was spring equinox we could balance eggs on their ends that day. I was quite dubious. Why on earth would eggs stand on their ends on spring equinox? Someone explained to me that the sun’s gravity lines up with the earth on equinox, which is why there are 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, and also why you are able to stand an egg on it’s end. A carton of eggs was pulled out of the fridge, and many of us spent the next half hour on the floor, trying to balance eggs. It took a while, but sure enough, my egg popped into place and balanced perfectly on its end. I was a believer!

That fall I was at school and mentioned this experience to my roommates. One of my roommates, Melissa, wasn’t quite sure. So she pulled some eggs out of our fridge and made herself comfortable on the floor. I was so sure she wouldn’t be able to do it. I mean, it wasn’t even equinox, the balance of the earth wasn’t right, right? But sure enough, a few minutes later, Melissa had her egg balancing perfectly on its end. I was shocked and appalled! How was this possible? What did this all mean? We pulled the rest the eggs we had out of the fridge (yeah, we only had four eggs, we were poor college students!) and balanced them all on their ends.

It was that day that I learned that the spring equinox/egg balancing thing was a myth. Last Sunday (June 21^st) was summer solstice. The myth of the balancing eggs would say that of all days, this day would be the absolute worst to balance an egg (since the pull of the sun is completely opposite). So I pulled out an egg, got down on the floor, and in less than a minute had it balancing on it’s end.

Moral of the story: Yes, eggs really will balance on spring equinox. However, they will also balance on summer solstice, Friday the 13^th, Labor Day, or any other day you please. Seriously! Go try it, it’s pretty fun!