Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtp47.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw 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!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw