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From: smelser@wang.UUCP (pri=8 Craig Smelser)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Electric Brae
Message-ID: <761@wang.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Feb-86 08:11:31 EST
Article-I.D.: wang.761
Posted: Wed Feb 12 08:11:31 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Feb-86 07:46:27 EST
References: <764@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA
Lines: 29

> 
> A friend of mine was in Scotland visiting relatives in December, on
> an island called Ayr.  Here's what she writes:
> 
>    "My cousins took me to see this neat thing called the 'Electric Brae'.
>     Have you ever heard of it?  A brae is a hill, and this one has a 
>     peculiar property: it defies gravity!  We got over the crest of the
>     hill, and cousin Tom put the car in neutral; now, it should have 
>     rolled down the hill, right?  But no--the car coasted to a stop and
>     then started backing up the hill!  And my cousin's wife said if you're
>     riding a bike down the hill, you have to pedal; if you're on horseback
>     or even on foot, you have to exert extra effort; and if you pour water 
>     on the road it runs up the hill! [Not all the way...but significantly!]
>     They said scientists from many places have come to study it, and no one
>     knows exactly how it works.  Anyway, I was duly impressed."
> 
> I have been reading The Skeptical Inquirer for the past three years, and
> haven't seen anything on this yet---maybe I should go through the back 
> issues. :-)  Anyway, has anyone ever heard of this?  If so, what theories
> have been put forth to explain this thing?
>
I saw something like this in the local (Boston) paper a few years ago.
Local people gave reports very similar to the above, including the claims
of study by baffled scientists.  It was effectively debunked with a level.
In hilly terrain, it may be difficult to judge the inclination of surfaces
by eye.  Nor, as studies have shown, are most people able to judge body
orientation with any accuracy.  The only unexplained phenomenon was the
effectiveness of the (presumably optical) illusion.