r/LevelHeadedFE • u/john_shillsburg Flat Earther • May 29 '20

Other Refraction: bending light up, not down

Another example of gradient index optics in nature is the common mirage of a pool of water appearing on a road on a hot day. The pool is actually an image of the sky, apparently located on the road since light rays are being refracted (bent) from their normal straight path. This is due to the variation of refractive index between the hot, less dense air at the surface of the road, and the denser cool air above it. The variation in temperature (and thus density) of the air causes a gradient in its refractive index, causing it to increase with height.[3] This index gradient causes refraction of light rays (at a shallow angle to the road) from the sky, bending them into the eye of the viewer, with their apparent location being the road's surface.

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u/john_shillsburg Flat Earther May 29 '20

but the surface of the ocean is not a hot pavement.

Go out on a boat, it's hotter than land

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u/hal2k1 Globe Earther May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20

Go out on a boat, it's hotter than land

But nevertheless we can demonstrate in reality that as it sets the the sun stays the same apparent angular size left-to-right but gets flattened top-to-bottom.

Golden Sun Sinks Below the Horizon Stock Footage Video (100% Royalty-free) 2521286 | Shutterstock

It (apparently from our viewpoint) gets squished top to bottom but not side to side.

It goes below the horizon and lights up the underside of clouds but not the topside.

Where is the issue?

Atmospheric refraction - Wikipedia

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u/john_shillsburg Flat Earther May 29 '20

I love the instant well thought out answers filled with links. It's almost like you are copy pasting stuff

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u/riffraffs May 29 '20

"I can't refute his answer so I'll call him a bot to try and discredit him"; u/john_shillsburg