Ms. Hyche’s Class Blog

Today is the Autumnal Equinox! We are only graced with an equinox twice a year, so I get very excited about this special day!

If you are in my science classes I am sure (or really hope) that you know the defintion of an equinox. However, for those of you who are reading this that aren’t in my class, I will do my best to make it short and sweet. During an equinox the sun is directly over the equator and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres will have equal amounts of daylight and equal amounts of nighttime. This always occurs around the 22nd of September (Autumnal) and the 20th or March (Vernal or Spring). This is basically the changing of seasons for both hemispheres. As we are beginning to tilt away from the sun and lose some of the sun’s radiation, the southern hemisphere is slowly tilting more towards the sun and is simultaneously heating up.

There has always been a MYTH that you can balance an egg on the equinoxes of each year because of gravitational alignment. Just for fun, our science class balanced an egg…..and did it successfully! However, I did test this experiment this summer and found with some patience (lots of patience) you could get the egg to balance and stand straight up.

It’s really a cool site to see an egg sitting straight up and look like it is barely touching the surface. The egg we balanced is still standing proudly on my desk. I will post pics of my classes with the egg for you to see. Don’t be fooled by my egg-clock, Bob. he is also in the picture.

I hope you guys go home and try this out yourselves. Please ask your parents permission first because I don’t want to be to blame if you have a gooey mess!!

Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone!