Anti-gravity Roads !!

StarLord

Senior Member
Messages
3,187
Re: Strange

Optical Illusion.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm

Years ago, (Noah was teething if memory serves correctly) There was a place called Knotts Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park CA. - 'bout 25 miles south of Los Angeles, Still There - man o man have prices gone up since then, that had a "Haunted Shack" near the spot where you panned for gold in the Ghost town. I always wondered how they pulled it off. The building is plumbed at around a 17 degree angle off of true 90 degree square - floor being perfectly level.

http://www.itsbeach.com/blog/2007/05/mystery_spot_sa.html

Now for the mystery hill bit:

June 1, 2006 — At several hilly locations around the U.S., know as "gravity hills," objects such as cars left on neutral supposedly roll uphill, driven by unknown forces and against the force of gravity. Physicists say -- and GPS measurements confirm -- that the effects are illusions caused by the landscape. The position of trees and slopes of nearby scenery, or a curvy horizon line, can blend to trick the eye so that what looks uphill is actually downhill.


BUCKS COUNTY, Pa.--Mystery spots of land, often known as gravity hills, are found throughout the United States and seemingly pull objects uphill.
"I was surprised at how fast I was moving," says sightseer Andrew Carr.
The mysterious spot in Bucks County, Pa., he speaks about is called Gravity Hill. Put your car in neutral, and it will look and feel like it's rolling uphill. Rolling a ball or pouring water also appears to flow uphill.
Why did physics choose this hill to go berserk?
Carr says, "I thought it was some kind of odd magnetic pull or something like that here that, that pulled your car along."
"Some people think maybe there's a warp in the earth's gravity," Dennis Tice, directory of the Bedford County Visitors Bureau, tells DBIS.
Don't believe everything you hear or see. The truth behind this phenomenon is it's an optical illusion.
"The embankment is sloped in a way that gives you the effect that you are going uphill," materials physicist Brock Weiss, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, tells DBIS.
The illusion is caused by the landscape. The position of trees and slopes of nearby scenery and a curvy horizon line have blended to trick the eye. GPS measurements by physicists show the elevation at the start is higher than at the end. The road actually slopes downhill!
Weiss says, "You are, indeed, going downhill even though your brain gives you the impression that you're going uphill."
Revealing the secrets behind Gravity Hill proves gravity hasn't gone haywire; it's just playing tricks on your mind.
"Oh, I think it's still fun," Carr says. "I would still bring people here to show them." A fun, quirky science site worth seeing.
Here you can find a gravity hill in your state.
BACKGROUND: Visit Gravity Hill in New Paris, Pa., and you will see cars that appear to roll uphill, while water flows the wrong way. Don't worry -- gravity hasn't really gone haywire. It's simply an optical illusion, one that can be found in hundreds of similar areas around the world.
HOW IT WORKS: The human eye and brain can be easily fooled into thinking the laws of physics are being defied -- but it's all distortions in perspective and odd angles. What such "mystery sites" all have in common is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon, which makes it difficult for human beings to judge the slope of a surface. They lack a reliable reference point, and this can override the body's sense of balance, especially if the slope is shallow. In the case of Gravity Hill, the layout of the surrounding landscape produces the illusion of a very slight downhill slope, when in fact it is a slight uphill slope. So a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill.
WHAT IS GRAVITY? In the 17th century, Isaac Newton came up with the law of universal gravitation, but he couldn't explain the underlying mechanism behind gravity. In 1917, Albert Einstein proposed his theory of general relativity. This attributes the force of gravity to the unseen warping of the fabric of spacetime, caused by the presence of mass (or energy). The earth always travels in a straight line. The presence of the sun curves space and thus the earth appears to be moving in an elliptical orbit. Imagine a rubber sheet stretched out tightly. If a bowling ball is placed in the center, the ball's mass will cause a depression in the sheet. If you then place an apple on the edge of the sheet, it will roll down the slope towards the center. The depression can't be seen by someone looking straight down at the sheet from above, so it appears that the apple was pulled by an invisible force.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
 

alejandroluis

New Member
Messages
17
Re: Strange

sounds reasonable even logical...but how do you explain all the rocks and gravel and debris gathered at the bottom of the hill ?
 

TimeWizardCosmo

Senior Member
Zenith
Messages
2,936
Re: Strange

There's something like this in Rohnert Park, CA called gravity hill. It's an optical illusion.

Also, why is this in Time Travel?
 

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,486
Re: Anti-gravity Roads !!

Moved from Time Travel to Science & Tech, didn't have time to check that video until five minutes ago.

I remember talking about the phenomena back in school, but I never experienced it myself. I'd be curious to check it out with a bubble level.
 

alejandroluis

New Member
Messages
17
Re: Strange

i put this in tt cuz there are those who believe that this may in fact be a vortex that can somehow be activated.... what do you think ?
 

TimeWizardCosmo

Senior Member
Zenith
Messages
2,936
Re: Anti-gravity Roads !!

It's definitely cool, but it's not a vortex or anything like that:
The slope of gravity hills is an optical illusion, although tour guides may claim natural or even supernatural forces are at work. The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon; without a horizon, judging the slope of a surface is difficult as a reliable reference is missing. Objects one would normally assume to be more-or-less perpendicular to the ground (such as trees) may actually be leaning, offsetting the visual reference. The illusion is similar to the well-known Ames room, in which balls can also appear to roll against gravity.
Websites devoted to the paranormal also tend to give names like "Haunted Hill", "Magnetic Hill", or "Anti-gravity Hill", reflecting attribution of the properties of the area to the supernatural or magnetism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_hill

It's an optical illusion is all.
 

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