Broom Standing

Picture taken from this website:

http://incredibots.com/if/viewtopic.php?p=383861

I think this might not work for me in my house because my foundation is slightly off.  If you place a ball in the middle of the floor, it won't stay there.  It rolls south.  So I guess it would make sense that, no matter how hard I try to make my REALLY old, plastic-bristled angled broom with the bent handle to stay put, it just won't.  Maybe if I had a flat floor, I could do it.  Or a broom that didn't have a dent in the handle.

The trick, it appears, is the finding the broom's center of gravity.  It's a basic balancing act.  I think it goes, if an object has the same mass distribution throughout its body, the center of gravity should be in the middle.   I'm thinking that since the broom's mass distribution isn't equal throughout (skinny up top, wide on the bottom), you've got to mess with it a little bit to get it to balance without falling over.  In some cases, this might mean cramming the bristles down so that they spread out a bit more or twisting the head of the broom around a little bit.

*EDIT*

This can happen any day of the year, contrary to the myth that it can only happen during a spring/fall equinox or planetary alignment event. 

I didn't find this in any one place.  I had to go to several websites and just piecemeal it together based on what I found and what I know from school.  Shoot me if I'm wrong!

Here's a little activity on the center of gravity, by NASA.

"Center of Gravity, Pitch, Yaw"

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/ETE_Center_of_Gravity.html

I'll be honest, physics makes my head hurt.  I was never any good at it.  I'm interested in the concepts of physics, but when you start to introduce all the equations and formulas, something in my brain shuts off and goes, "La la la la la la can't hear you la la la la la."  And to be truthful, I thought "yaw" was some sort of rapper-slang for "y'all."  Center of Gravity, YAW!

I'm still trying to figure out why I can balance perfectly well while doing yoga barefoot on my hardwood floor, but when you get me in a studio with a yoga mat, everyone thinks I've had a little too much of the drinky-drink.  Somebody explain that!  I'll give you a cookie.  :-)