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From: throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Weird Gravitational effects at Lake Delton Wisconsin
Message-ID: <155@rtp47.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 12:47:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: rtp47.155
Posted: Thu Aug 22 12:47:28 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 06:15:43 EDT
References: <974@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <203@tekig5.UUCP>
Organization: Data General, RTP, NC
Lines: 28

> There's another one of these anomalies, called the Oregon Vortex, [...]
> In one photograph one of them appears taller than the other, and in the
> other, after they've exchanged places, they appear to be the same
> height.  There is unquestionably something weird going on.

Can you say "fun house"?  I knew you could.

The symptoms of the effect (tendency to "drift" to one side or another,
disorientation or lack of balance), coupled with this photograph leads
me to beleive that the platform is nowhere near true.  It is relatively
simple to make a platform that appears perfectly square, and yet is not
(the optical illusion involved was explained in Scientific American a
few years back, and is well known.)  This confuses the be-jeezuz out of
your sense of balance, since it is getting contradictory input (visual
says "flat surface", but kinesthetic senses say "crooked as a three
dollar bill").

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.

As implied above, this effect is sometimes used in fun houses.  These
"gravitational anomalies" seem to be simply a subtler version of the
same thing.
-- 
Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC
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