I don’t like to make sweeping statements, but this broom thing that’s trending is crazy – just crazy enough to present an opportunity. In case you haven’t heard, it was “reported” (with accompanying pictures) by someone on twitter that NASA said the gravitational pull on February 10 was such that brooms would stand upright on their own.

Every parent knows that once a child is old enough to properly use a broom without poking a hole in or through something, they will never voluntarily touch one (unless they’re playing Harry Potter) much less sweep anything. Until now.

So, don’t poo-poo that experiment. Expand on it. Ask your child to see if the broom will still stand on its own after it has, for example, been used to sweep the patio or the front step. What effect does the dirt picked up on the straw of the broom have on its ability to remain upright? Try this in ten-minute intervals and see if you can Tom Sawyer your way to having every concrete surface around your house cleaned.

Of course, NASA’s involvement in this “experiment” is just a myth. They have stated on the NASA twitter account that, “Basic physics works every day of the year.”*

But if you can get your kids to get some work done with a broom, well, that’s pretty close to rocket science in my eyes.

(*Click here for the full story of debunking the broom hoax from sciencealert.com.)