Originally published at: The secret behind gravity-defying hills unveiled | Boing Boing
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The most elaborate version of this I’ve ever experienced was at Xenses Park in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. They have a whole street that appears to be heading uphill but is actually sloping downhill, it really messes with your head. It even has a “backwards”-flowing stream.
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There are places on a couple bike paths that I frequent that are like this. One is on a long rail trail that’s a steady climb over several miles. There is on section in the middle that looks as if it’s still going uphill, but in reality is a downhill slope of about .5%.
The other is as you come out of a valley and round a turn coming parallel with a road that is uphill in the opposite direction . As you head toward the intersection where they are level there’s a 50 foot stretch where you are going downhill, but because the road to your right is also sloping in the opposite direction it looks as if you are continuing to go uphill.
I call them the Mario Cart speed boost sections of my ride.
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A similar weird sensation sometimes occurs if you are the middle car of three stopped at a red light. If the cars on either side of you pull forward in perfect unison, you get the sensation of rolling backward even though you have the brake depressed and not going anywhere.
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There’s a similar place called “Magnetic Brae” in Scotland. I was on a bus - a proper, Scottish, Country Bus where the driver said he was going to try it. The bus wasn’t exactly full. There were maybe twelve people on it. We were disappointed. The bus rolled in the direction everyone thought it would roll. Maybe you need to be in a car, rather than with a two or three foot higher sight-line. Apart from that it was a bloody brilliant bus ride, from Edinburgh to Inverness. Very scenic, and the driver stopped to let people take photographs if they wanted. This wasn’t a tour bus! This was the commercial service!
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Do you have a video of that happening, because goddamn, that looks uphill!
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I was hoping that he would have brought out the “liquid level” (two lab ring stands connected with some clear plastic tubing filled with a colored liquid). That way a horizontal reference would have been obvious.
How to build a non-portable one.
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I don’t have a video from our trip but you can see clips of the street in this video about a minute in:
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Trippy!
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Yeah like the Youtubers say it is hard to really capture how disorienting it feels on the video. Not an attraction to visit right after drinking a lot of alcohol!
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Agreed - using the iPhone as a level on the dirt road didn’t seem particularly useful. A spirit level would have been better.
I also think they could have shortened the video by leveling the tripod that the external camera was on. It was clearly positioned to reinforce the illusion when a level camera would have shown what was really happening.
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Skip to 2:35 if you just want the water.
In both this and the video @Brainspore posted, you can tell the camera person is trying to stand mostly upright based on gravity and not the horizon. You can tell just how wild the build is to create the effect. Looks fun.
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I had something like this happen to me. I was backing into a parking space in a gas station, and just as I was coming to a stop, the large truck next to me began slowly pulling out of its parking space.
I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye, and fearing I was drifting backward into the pylons, I panic stomped the brake pedal, but I had already stopped. It took me a couple seconds to figure out how my senses had tricked me.
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Sometimes when I’m backpacking with someone I will tell them “as we’re going up this incline, pretend it’s flat, convince yourself you’re actually walking on level ground, straighten out your body a little and look only directly ahead”-- it has the effect of making it feel like gravity has suddenly increased several fold.
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This was a secret? It had never been unveiled before?
There’s a cemetery near where I grew up in Michigan where you can get to the bottom of a hill, put your car in neutral and it will roll back up the hill.
There are a few other places in Michigan but that cemetery is where I experienced it many moons ago. I should take a road trip this Halloween.
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Now I’m reminded of long ago helping a friend learn to drive a stick shift. We were on a very slight incline and she kept stalling out. I said “You’re on a hill—you need to give it more gas.” She was just incredulous at the idea of being on a hill when it seemed like it was flat to her. She had just never had to really think about inclines before, I guess 
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It’s too much for the mind to comprehend. Best to just turn up the sound and dance.
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There’s one near Moncton, New Brunswick (Canada) that’s also, shockingly, called Magnetic Hill, a tourist attraction since the 1930’s.
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Not only does the car seem to roll uphill, but the steering wheel seem to have moved to the passenger side, and the car looks like it’s driving on the left side of the road. Weird!
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trains and subways is where ive noticed it most. suddenly you’re moving, only you’re not. it’s the train out the window.
it’s a very weird feeling when your brain thinks you’re moving and your body doesn’t…
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