eli5: when it’s hot why does it look like there’s water on the roads and why does it make a rippling effect.
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That’s a mirage and it’s because of 2 things.
1) evolution of your eye. Throughout evolution it’s been beneficial to assume that light rays coming from anywhere are always coming straight. Your brain naturally assumes that if you see an object, it’s exactly where you see it is, even if I tell you it’s an optical illusion. So any light coming into your eyes is assumed to come from a straight like where you’re looking.
2) the colder relatively and the road is hot. Hence there are different zones of temperature and density. This causes light from the sky to bend and refract in different ways. So, the blue sky light comes down and is bent towards your eyes due refraction.
So even though the light is coming from the air and nothing blue in front, your brain assumes that there must be something blue or glistening in front of you for you to be seeing light coming into your eyes. And the most common glistening and blue thing you assume? Water.
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