We all love an impossible-sounding challenge, which is no doubt why a broom balancing craze has exploded on Twitter.
The broom challenge sees people attempting to balance the household cleaning item on its bristles, making it stand upright all on its own - spooky huh? Harry Potter eat your heart out.
Pajama broom challenge 😂 What are you doing on a Monday Night?! #broomchallenge
And people are obsessing over it, sharing thousands of videos of their attempts on Twitter.
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Plenty of others joined in, posting videos of their brooms, with even celebrities such as Paula Abdul and Jason Derulo joining in.
Many people are citing NASA as their inspiration. They claim NASA said that February 10th was the only day that a broom could be balanced, because of gravitational phenomena.
Late post but it actually worked.lol 😂😂😂 #broomchallenge
But it seems NASA has never made comment about how gravity might affect a broom.
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In fact, fact-checking website Snopes has uncovered why this trend has gone so viral and it's all to do with the equinox - the time or date, which occurs twice a year, when day and night are of equal length.
It's apparently a longtime myth that this period possesses a special property to allow eggs to be balanced on their ends, and it now seems to have spread to brooms, too.
The funnier thing is, we're not even near the equinox just yet, it is usually around March 20th.
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Still, tweets were flying around claiming NASA had said yesterday was a special day, too, which is what kicked things off. The space body actually said no such thing and someone's tweet had simply credited the challenge to the space program.
In fact, anyone can balance the broom on any day of the year with patience.
Apparently, its all about balance and the fact that the broom's centre of gravity is low - just above the bristles.
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Even people working at NASA quashed the rumour.
Astronaut Alvin Drew and scientist Sarah Noble from NASA posted on Twitter: "Astronaut Alvin Drew and scientist Sarah Noble respond to the #BroomstickChallenge, showing that basic physics works every day of the year - not just February 10th."
🧹 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Astronaut Alvin Drew and scientist Sarah Noble respond to the #BroomstickChallenge, showing that basic physics works every day of the year — not just February 10th.
Whether it's got anything to do with NASA or not, it's still hilarious that it's gone so viral.
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We're still giving it a go, gravitational pull or not. Call us suckers.
Topics: Challenge, Life, Twitter, Nasa