Springtime for Mythbuster

At 07:00 today, Universal Time, the sun crosses the equator and spring officially begins. I don't know what Universal Time means, so I have no idea when that actually happens. It's probably already passed, so I've most likely missed my opportunity to balance my egg. According to the popular myth, you can balance a raw egg on its end at precisely the time that the sun crosses the equator.

That's true as far as it goes, but of course, it's just as easy to balance an egg on its end on any other day at any other time. I think by now this urban legend has been more or less exploded, but I remember when I was a kid this was reported on television as true and actually taught in classrooms as a science lesson for some reason.

It turns out, popular myth that you can balance an egg on this day was first introduced to America by Annalee Jacoby, a journalist for Life magazine. Jacoby was in Chunking for the first day of spring, called Li Chun in China, and wrote of how the people of Chunking turned out on Li Chun to balance eggs on flat surfaces all over the city.

Here's the irony: Li Chun in China happens in early February, not on the equinox when we America recognize the first day of spring. Jacoby's article in Life stated that eggs were thought easiest to balance in China on the first day of spring, but did not mention that, in China, this would have been around February 4. When Americans adopted the superstition, March 20 or so suddenly became the only day of the year when eggs could stand on end.

You can read more about this peculiar springtime custom in this article by Martin Gardner for The Skeptical Inquirer.