TORONTO -- Social media was flooded Monday with images of broomsticks standing upright on their own, a phenomenon that some attributed to an unusual one-day change in our planet’s gravitational pull.
Yes, the videos are real. But the sketchy science is not.
The so-called #BroomstickChallenge began after a Twitter user posted a video of her trying out the stunt.
“So NASA said today is the day – the only day – that your broom can stand up on its own. And watch this,” the user said, placing a green broom upright on a hardwood floor. It remains vertical. “Yo! No strings, nothing. What!”
The post has since been retweeted more than 64,000 times and viewed more than 7.3 million times.
The viral post sparked plenty of copycat posts, including one from American singer-songwriter Paula Abdul and Canadian rapper Tory Lanez.
The hashtag eventually prompted a tweet from a NASA. In a video posted Tuesday, astronaut Alvin Drew and scientist Sarah Noble tried the stunt – one day after the supposed change in gravity.
Lo and behold, it still worked.
"Did you do the Broomstick Challenge yesterday?" Noble asks in the video. "Well, turns out you can do it again today."
"It's just physics," Drew said.
The false claim about the shift in gravity has appeared before and is often attributed to an old wives’ tale that, on the vernal and autumnal equinox, eggs can balance on their ends.
