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From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Weird Gravitational effects at Lake Delton Wisconsin
Message-ID: <776@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Aug-85 13:21:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.776
Posted: Sat Aug 31 13:21:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 15:28:28 EDT
References: <974@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <203@tekig5.UUCP> <155@rtp47.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 27
Summary: Nonsense, but a level mightn't disprove it

Wayne Throop (throopw@rtp47.UUCP) writes:
> I expect (if the owners would allow you to do it), simply measuring the
> platform with a tape measure and (perhaps) a carpenter's level would
> expose the trickery.  It is probably "off level" by a couple of degrees,
> and one side is a little longer than the other to make it appear level
> to the eye.

Wayne is surely correct, but his experimental design is faulty.
Say the operators of the place are claiming that their platform
is horizontal but due to a gravity anomaly it seems to be tilted
5 degrees.  And say that a carpenter's level gives a reading that
shows that it is tilted 5 degrees.  Well, what drives a carpenter's
level?  Gravity!  So this does NOT disprove the claim.

The simplest ways that come to my mind are a gyroscope and astronomical
observations (measure the sun's position assuming the floor is level,
and again assuming your level is level; compare with outside observations
at the same time, or computed position).

Of course, if they are claiming that something is rectangular when
it isn't, THAT's easy to disprove.  And optical illusions where
two people seem to change heights when they change positions,
particularly in photographs where you don't get binocular depth cues,
are well known.  The operators are probably exploiting this as well as
non-level surfaces; it doesn't do to assume one trick covers all.

Mark Brader