(Newswire.net — February 14, 2020) — There is a new challenge on social networks, which portrays a good example of one of the biggest problems of the internet in the modern age – the spread of misinformation, BBC reports.
The broom challenge, or #broomchallenge has gotten people from around the world to take photos of broomsticks standing still, although no one is holding them upright.
It all started with the Tweet in which the author claims that NASA reported a special gravity event so that brooms can stay still.
“NASA says today is the only day of the year when a broom can stand on its own because of its gravity force,” one American tweeter wrote.
His recording went viral, gaining tens of thousands of likes and shares. However, this joke was taken too seriously.
In fact, upright brooms have absolutely nothing to do with the position of the planet, the pull of the moon, or gravity.
The broom challenge was first mentioned in Mexico on February 4, but NASA was first tagged in Brazil four days later. However, the fact-checking portal Snopes states that the same challenge on social networks occurred in February 2012. The portal says that this is just another version of the egg-balancing trick, which the popular myth claimed was only possible during the spring equinox.
In a TV broadcast in March 2012, now uploaded to YouTube, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers explained it was possible to balance a broom or an egg at any time of the year not just the spring equinox.
“If you set the egg up long enough, the yolk will come down to the bottom of the egg and that will be your centre of gravity down there,” he explained. “Keeping a low centre of gravity makes a fast race car but also will make brooms stand up.”
This is not the first time that NASA has been linked to misinformation on social networks.
As many as 17 million people watched Facebook’s alleged live broadcast from the International Space Station in 2016. However, NASA confirmed at the time that it was an older video of an astronaut launching into space.
The case of brooms getting up on their own or standing upright has not yet been heard.