why air becomes “wobbly” (and, thus, kind of visible) when it’s hot

Question

why air becomes “wobbly” (and, thus, kind of visible) when it’s hot

In: 581

Answer 1

Even though things are transparent light still travels differently through deffrent transparent mediums. This is how you can see the difference between a empty glass and a glass full of water. This is called refraction. The index of refraction is affected by things like temperature so when hot air mixes with cold air you will see the boundaries between the two as the light passes through them differently.