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From: carl@vger.UUCP (Carl Hewitt)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Electric Brae
Message-ID: <346@vger.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Feb-86 20:47:39 EST
Article-I.D.: vger.346
Posted: Wed Feb 19 20:47:39 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Feb-86 07:30:29 EST
References: <736@brl-smoke.ARPA> <933@nmtvax.UUCP> <11905@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Distribution: net
Organization: UC Santa Cruz, CIS Dept.
Lines: 36
Summary: mystery spot

In article <11905@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith) writes:
> In article <933@nmtvax.UUCP> shipman@nmtvax.UUCP (John Shipman) writes:
> 
> >Sue Stratton's story about the "Electric Brae" sounds like a tourist
> >trap called the "Mystery Spot" in the southwest--I can't remember where,
> >somewhere on I-10 or I-40 in Arizona or New Mexico?  The illusion
> >of the "Mystery Spot" is that gravity seems to be off vertical;
> >water runs uphill, you have to stand off plumb, and so forth.
> >
> >Has anyone visited such a spot?  I haven't, but I remember one
> >of my secondary school science teachers said this was done by
> >providing erroneous vertical references.  Artifacts that everyone
> >assumes are vertical, such as walls, phone poles, or conifers,
> >were all bent slightly to disorient the eye.
> 
>  I visited a "mystery spot" when I was about ten years old. It seemed
> to me to clearly be an optical illusion, caused by peculiarities of
> this shack which was the "spot".
> 
We have a Mystery Spot here in Santa Cruz, and they have more than just
slanted buildings and poles. (They say they're slanted because of their
extended time in the weird gravity)  They have a iron ball hanging from
a chain which only takes a little exertion to move in one direction, but
takes almost 10 times as much strength when pushing it the other direction.

I can't think of any explanation to it, maybe someone knows about these
things?

					-- Carl C. Hewitt

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