Students stand egg on its head

Sixth-graders at St. Anthony School sat in wonder this week as they managed to balance an egg on its head, in honor of the autumnal equinox.

The feat, based on myth, suggests that the earth’s gravitational forces are such during the equinox that an egg will stand on its head when properly balanced. Despite numerous failures, students in Patricia Spaziani’s class were eventually able to get a raw egg to stand up straight — narrow side down — on the floor in the middle of their classroom.

“It happened just as autumn began, at 11:44 Tuesday,� Spaziani said, expressing the same enthusiasm as students in the class. “It’s the talk of the school,� the teacher added.

Students decided to name the egg Sparta, “the fighter,� and were careful not to disturb it Tuesday. A four-legged stool was set above the egg as a blockade Tuesday afternoon and into the night. When students saw the egg was still standing Wednesday morning, they were amazed. “It is a raw egg and there is no salt down there or anything,� Spaziani said.

Various scientific and “bad astronomy� Web sites note that celestial alignment does not affect the ability to stand an egg on its head and, in fact, an egg can be balanced standing up on any day of the year. Though widely debunked, many claim there is still something to the theory that celestial alignment contributes to the phenomenon.