Updated: Monday, 21 Sep 2009, 10:04 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 21 Sep 2009, 10:02 PM EDT
(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Tuesday marks the first day of fall, or the autumn equinox. And there will likely be many who will try to balance eggs.
For years people around the world have tried to balance eggs on the autumnal and vernal (spring) equinoxes. Th e autumnal equinox will officially take place at 5:18 p.m. EDT, which marks when the sun crosses the Earth's equator, when there are both 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of nighttime. It is at this time when many say eggs cen be balanced on one end because of this is when gravity will be "balanced."
But is there any truth to the trick?
According to multiple Web sites including AstroSociety.org , with some time and patience, you can balance an egg on any day of the year. There isn't anything special about the autumnal or vernal equinoxes.
"At any day of the year, grab a carton of eggs and try to stand each one. Usually you cannot stand a raw egg because the inside of an egg is a very viscous (thick) liquid, and the yolk sits in this liquid. The yolk is usually a bit off-center and rides high in the egg, making it very difficult to balance. The egg falls over. However, with patience, you can usually make an egg stand up," writes Phil Plait.
Snopes.com writes , "Rarely does a year go by in which a local TV station doesn't send a reporter out to a neighborhood park to capture images of people decidedly placing eggs on the ground and watching in amazement as the eggs stand on end. Rarely do we see any new stories reporting that this same feat can be achieved every other day of the year as well."
So how did the myth of the egg balancing start?
The BBC reports that it is a legend that can be traced to China where it was believed that balancing of eggs is easily done on first day of spring, which is also the beginning of the Chinese solar calendar. Chinese insisted that the vernal equinox was the only day eggs could be balanced, and the ritual was popularized in a 1945 article in Life magazine.
But if you still want to balance eggs on the first day of fall, Discover 111 Recipes To Cook Your Egg. You'll Won't Eat The Same Anymore. has a few tips for how to successfully get eggs to balance. Because most eggs' yolks are off center, you can cheat a bit by shaking the egg. This will break up the yolk and lower the egg's center of gravity to help it balance. And because egg's shells have tiny bumps on them, they can act as feet to stand the egg up.
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