Paranormal activity swept through campus this week, inciting awe and confusion among University students.
Facebook was in a frenzy as users posted pictures of freestanding broomsticks which they said balanced on their own because of the vernal equinox and a special alignment of the planets.
But professor of physics and astronomy Bradley Schaefer dispelled these claims.
“I can tell you very confidently that astronomically, the equinox has absolutely nothing to do with [it],” he said.
Schaefer dismissed the whimsical trick as a simple balancing act. He said the myth initially claimed that an egg can only stand on its end during an equinox, but the broom phenomenon shares the same premise.
Schaefer said both a broom and an egg can stand freely on any day of the year, and a simple experiment could easily disprove the rumor.
“Science is all about dispelling these old wives’ tales, these urban myths, these stupid Internet memes,” Schaefer said. “The nature of science is to test reality.”
Psychology freshman Sharifeh Hamideh said she didn’t know how to react when she first saw a picture of a freestanding broom on her Facebook Timeline.
“I was kind of freaked out, but I didn’t think it was real,” Hamideh said.
English senior Katelyn Wood said she had a similar reaction to the odd trend and was confused about why so many people were posting pictures of a broom.
“This happens a lot,” Wood said. “People are very quick to jump on the bandwagon.”
Schaefer agreed with Wood.
“It’s a sociological question: ‘How do these myths get started, and why are they propagating?'” Schaefer said.
Schaefer said people’s readiness to accept rumors as truth could potentially be the downfall of society.
“If we pride ourselves on being in an information age, but most of the information is wrong, that bodes bad for society,” he said. “You, me, we have to learn how to recognize stupidity and not pass it along.”
 
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Contact David Jones at [email protected]