I have noticed that sometimes on a hot day, while travelling, I will see a water puddle on the road a little far away but when the car reaches there, there is no puddle or water.
I tried searching about this but couldn’t really understand why light changes its direction and we perceive it as a virtual image which looks like water.
I would really like to understand why this really happens.
Thanks!
In: 2
the water you see is the sky. different temperatures of air cause light to travel through it at different speeds, which can cause light to bend in different directions. on a hot day the air above the road is much hotter also and as a result some of the light travelling from the sky to the road bends towards you instead of hitting the road, so you see sky (which looks like water to our brain) instead of the road.
This is known as refraction.
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