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From: majka@ubc-vision.UUCP (Marc Majka)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Electric Brae
Message-ID: <89@ubc-vision.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Feb-86 14:04:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.89
Posted: Wed Feb 12 14:04:29 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Feb-86 00:58:38 EST
Organization: UBC Computational Vision Lab, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 16


There is a tourist trap near Moncton, New Brunswick (Canada), which promotes
the same phenomenon.  They call their's a "Magnetic Hill".   I also know of
another location in New Brunswick which does the same thing.  The principle
involved in both places is a false horizon.  We are easily confused about
horizontal (ask any pilot about the first time they flew into cloud).  In
the case of these false hills, the surrounding landscape is tilted, but
without any other reference, we take them to be horizontal.  What appears to
be uphill with respect to the surrounding landscape is really no such thing.

At the Magnetic Hill in N.B., the visual illusion is enhanced by a fence,
hedge, and power lines beside the road.  All three of them are taller at the
"top" of the hill than at the "bottom".

---
Marc Majka