Magnetic Hill

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-02-09 07:15am

Hi guys, I've been debating with a moron here in Taiwan over a whole bunch of science/pseudoscience topics and recently he claimed that

The Magnetic Hill is God to demonstrating his control over gravity.

(In Chinese, the MH is called a "wierd slope", the phenomenon itself won't be related to magnets over here in Taiwan.)

After showing him some pages with an explanation that the MH was a pure illusion, he whined that there was no figure, so I drew a picture which could be found here:http://tw.photos.yahoo.com/lonewolf_008382

Slope BC is the MH.

It seems quite correct to me, are there any problems with this figure?

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-02-09 02:18pm

Umm.. I've never heard of the Magnetic Hill. WTF is it?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-09 02:39pm

Isn't it like that one in Ireland where things seem to travel upwards?

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-02-09 02:51pm

Isn't it like that one in Ireland where things seem to travel upwards?

Could you elaborate?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-09 02:52pm

jaeger115 wrote:
Isn't it like that one in Ireland where things seem to travel upwards?
Could you elaborate?

No?

I dunno, I hear of some places that are supposed hills where if you rolled a ball down it, it would appear to defy gravity and roll upwards. It was merely an illusion though.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-02-09 02:53pm

There is a hill somewhere out in the maritimes where you park your car at the 'bottom' put it into neutral and it rolls back 'up' the hill. It is an optical illusion.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-02-09 03:47pm

I heard a version that it was easier to travel upwards on the hill than it was to move down...
That hill was in Taiwan too.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-02-09 03:52pm

No?

I dunno, I hear of some places that are supposed hills where if you rolled a ball down it, it would appear to defy gravity and roll upwards. It was merely an illusion though.

How did the illusion work? I'd like to know more.

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-02-09 10:43pm

jaeger115 wrote:
No?

I dunno, I hear of some places that are supposed hills where if you rolled a ball down it, it would appear to defy gravity and roll upwards. It was merely an illusion though.
How did the illusion work? I'd like to know more.

Here's from Randi's encyclopedia:

A sensory illusion in which a road or path appears to have a slight upgrade but is actually minimally downhill.

This can be brought about by false optical indicators. One such occurs when nearby trees, road signs or fence-posts in the area are inclined somewhat away from the vertical, a condition which may have come about from a long-forgotten geological shift. The tendency for the senses is to automatically assume that trees and other such objects are positioned at right angles to the horizontal, and with some persons the sense of sight overcomes that of the balance organ (located in the ear) which normally gives us our conception of the position of the horizontal.

Stories abound of cars that run uphill at these locations with the ignition turned off, when actually they are coasting downhill. If it is possible to stand far enough back from the site so that the greater surroundings are also seen, it will be noticed that the illusion then fails.

A strong example of this deceptive effect is found at the "Oregon Vortex,'' a site on Interstate I-5 near Gold Hill, Oregon, near the California/Oregon border. The thousands of visitors who visit the area annually go away convinced that they have witnessed a genuine anomaly.

To sum up, the slope is slight, and the trees, signs...etc make it look like uphill, but actually it is downhill.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-02-10 12:51am

Oregon Vortex. That place was kind of cool. Of course it's an illusion. But when you see it, it's still pretty cool. Hard to believe that so many people take it seriously though.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-02-10 01:49am

Wasn't there a Vortex site in Sam & Max Hit the Road?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-02-10 02:37am

Slartibartfast wrote:Wasn't there a Vortex site in Sam & Max Hit the Road?

Yes, there was. Though that one actually was real.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-02-10 02:40am

Hmm... I remember one of those chambers that made it seem like there were spinning walls. When I was a kid, those chambers did nothing, but now that I'm older, it feels like as though I'm about to fall upwards...

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-02-10 01:49pm

I have a book on such illusions, and I believe the name "magnetic hill" was coined when after they were first dicovered, people believe they had some ort of magnetic material.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-02-10 01:55pm

I've been to one site where they claim ghosts push cars uphill; it's again one of those illusions put on by the fact that surrounding objects and terrain make it appear like you're moving uphill.

That was one quick debunking; got out my level and settled the matter REAL quick-like.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-02-10 02:06pm

I saw one of those spots in the Dominican Republic, around Lago Enriquillo...