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Therefore, wouldn't you throw off the center of gravity this way and it in theory would fall over.

Depends. With a very low center of gravity and a very wide base, there's quite a range of motion of the body as a whole before the CG is no longer over the base and it topples. Now, if you push the broom over to 89.5° from the vertical and it STILL stands back up by itself, then I'll be impressed.

Otherwise it's just silliness.

Well, it must be Real. If the Southern Paranormal Researchers investigated it, it must be TRUE. What the Hell is the matter with you people?

Southern Paranormal Researchers

Ok, you folks with "an actual education", explain this: any broom I have tried, old, worn, angled, tape on the handle, it matters not. If I stand it with the bristles lined up roughly SW to NE, the broom stands alone. Turn it 90 degrees, and it won't stand.

Secondly, being a pilot, I understand weight and balance, arms, moments, and CG quite well. In order for the CG to balance the broom, it would have to be aligned with the center of the mass of the broom. The angled broom defies this explanation, because the CG, which is where the broom will balance if held horizontally, is well to one side of the brooms mass when it is standing free. Furthermore, if you turn said angled broom 90 degrees, it will NOT stand.

I bet you will also tell me I can't witch for water, won't you.

Where I live, dowsing or water witching is almost 100% reliable. That's because it means nothing and there is water everywhere in the ground. My basement can find water every time it rains more than 1 inch with no human intervention.

BTW, your floor's out of level.

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In order for the CG to balance the broom, it would have to be aligned with the center of the mass of the broom.

ROFL.


Can anyone name anything where the center of gravity is not "aligned" with the center of mass in a uniform gravitational field? They're synonymous.

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because the CG, which is where the broom will balance if held horizontally, is well to one side of the brooms mass when it is standing free

See above.



Are you sure you understand center of gravity and center of mass?

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Originally posted by dfez:

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Originally posted by missjones:
dang..ya'll are very rude! that person was just asking a simple question and all of ya'll had to get an attitude! i think its crazy that the brooms are standing up...this hasnt happened before. and i bet none of you can explain why its happening. and i dont think ur science teacher should be removed. quit being so serious all the time...u cant learn everything from a science book

No, but many of us have an actual education and have some experience with reality. You can cut the bristles of a straight broom so that it will stand up if the bristles are new and stiff; it has nothing to do with the alignment of the Planets.

How's this, my friend told me she researched and found it only happens once every 200 years that the balance can happen. It's the change from the moon's pull that affected the gravity. I was able to not only stand a new broom but an old broom up.

I, a sophomore, getting a as you call it actual education can do this OPEN MINDED. Science is about being open minded. You don't learn everything from books but from experimenting.

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How's this, my friend told me she researched and found it only happens once every 200 years that the balance can happen.

She's simply wrong. (Or, more correctly, her sources are wrong/misinformed).

If broom X can do it on floor Y today, it can do it any other day, in the past or the future.

There are also tons of people who wholly and utterly believe that an egg will balance on a specific day and only on that specific day... the problem is that from group A to group B, the day it's "supposed" to work varies -- how can the egg know whether it's supposed to stand or not?

The fact is that any egg can be balanced on any rough surface on any day of the year if the person is willing to put the effort into it (and not willing themselves subconsciously to fail). It has nothing to do with the moon or the sun or the planets or the time of year.

If the moon were having an effect, as per your friend's research (which it isn't), then why does it not happen every 27.3 days when the moon's back in the same spot in its orbit? Or if you want to get more precise, why not every 8.85 years for the precession of the long axis, or every 18.6 years for the precession of the nodes? Which orifice did these "sources" pull this "200 years" figure out of?

Almost 12000 (yes, twelve THOUSAND) views of this topic in under 2 months, is unreal though.

Don't fire the science teacher yet.

The way this should be presented is that he tells the class he's going to test whether a broom or egg can be stood on its end during the vernal equinox like they say. He has the kids perform the feat, and asks them what they've proved. But then he asks them whether it would work another day -- and by showing this he has now demonstrated to them one of the most basic ideas in science, the need for a control group.