35 Are cars really rolling uphill in that graveyard near my town? (Folklore / Ghost Stories)
Description
This article is from the Ghost Stories FAQ, by obiwan obiwan@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
35 Are cars really rolling uphill in that graveyard near my town? (Folklore / Ghost Stories)
There are some places where the land is shaped in such a way that
it can sometimes appear that things are going uphill when they are
really going down. Some people attribute this type of activity to
paranormal causes.
Jason Hoffman (Jason.Hoffman@nopc.jaxx.com) explains it this way:
"This was explained very simply on a TV show several years back.
There is a place known as "Gravity Hill" where the road is on a slight
decline. But the trees on the side of the road, instead of being
vertical, lean down the hill. So that if you are standing sideways on
the road, with the down side to your left, the trees `should' appear
to lean to the right, but actually lean to the left. This makes the
downward side of the hill seem to be the up side of the hill. The
grade is so slight that it throws off your balance, so you become con-
fused.
"This has been illustrated in fun houses at amusement parks...'The
Leaning Room'. After being in the room for a minute, your natural
sense of balance tries to correct itself. Then, you try to roll a
ball down some parallel bars, but the ball rolls up instead."
Here is another explanation by Paul Johnson (paj@gec-mrc.co.uk):
"The brain uses a collection of techniques for deciding which way is
up. The balancing organs in the inner ears only work when you stand
still, so for most purposes the brain uses visual rules-of-thumb.
"Amongst these are:
1: The ground is, on average, horizontal.
2: Walls are vertical.
"So these mystery spots are usually on broad, empty plains with a
slight slope. The slope isn't noticable, and rule 1 is applied by the
brain to get a wrong answer for the horizontal. Hence any slight
lessening of the slope looks like a slight upward rise on a flat
plain, even though it is actually still downhill. So things rolling
down the slope look like they are rolling uphill.
"Sometimes locals exploit rule 2 by putting up buildings that conform
to the visual horizontal instead of the actual one. This reinforces
the illusion quite strongly.
"If you are ever shown one of these spots, check a map with contour
lines drawn on to find out how flat it really is."
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