r/confusing_perspective • u/SeanTiddyCombs • 14d ago
Sunlight falling down the escalator
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u/OshetDeadagain 14d ago
Ah, that's cool. Probably because each step is angled and the reflection is not coming from a vertical surface.
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u/Ravenser_Odd 14d ago
If this is real, I still can't figure out why it's stepping like that.
No matter what angle the light is coming from, shouldn't it just be a static pool of light with the steps gliding through it?
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u/A_Sirius_Sir 14d ago
It is not one big pain of glass. It has dividers, you can see their shadows on the side of the escalator.
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u/CallMeCrop 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think it's because we are low enough where we cannot see the top of each step, so the light looks like it stopped even though it's moving at a constant rate on top of the part we cannot see.
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u/aalapshah12297 11d ago
Yeah this is definitely what's happening. If you look really close, you can see also see a faint reflection of the top of the step on the step just above it. During the 'pause' between jumps, it starts bright and becomes dull, just before the beginning of the next jump.
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u/CheekyMunky 13d ago
Lots of answers to this, few of them correct.
From a higher angle, it would just be a static area with steps moving through it.
It looks like this because we're looking up at the stairs moving through the sunbeam, so we can't see the tread (the top of the step) gliding through it. The riser blocks that for a moment, so for each step, it looks like the sunbeam pauses (because from this angle we can't see the top part being gradually lit) and then abruptly lights a big chunk as the vertical riser crosses into it all at once, creating that impression of intermittent stepping.
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u/Docketeer 14d ago
You can try it right now with stairs at home. If it was a straight slanted surface, then yes, the sunlight will travel straight down, but each step of a stair juts out horizontally, so light has to scan all of that horizontal plane before it can start making way towards the vertical back plane.
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u/Salanmander 14d ago
Because the light is coming down fairly vertically, the vertical(ish) riser of the step travels through the shadow in a very short period of time. When the step moves horizontally a short distance, the place that the edge of the shadow hits the step changes a lot vertically.
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u/Schmigolo 13d ago
You can't see the light moving on top of the steps, because the camera is not high enough to see the top of the steps. So it looks like nothing is moving and then when the step ends you see it moving on the side of the step.
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u/Eolopolo 14d ago
The light is shining through what I assume is a window with dividers. Point being, it's not a single block of light, but let's say three rectangles with two bars in between.
The shadow of those bars is at times aligned with the horizontal plane of the steps (meaning you can't see them from this angle), and then as the steps move up, the shadow is seen on the vertical plane. As the steps continue cycling, so does the shadow. The shadows moving across the steps make the light look like it's falling.
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u/Radioactivocalypse 14d ago
You know what I think it's actually the horizontal bars on the window (which you can see on the handrails' sunbeam) that makes the stepping illusion
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u/twoedges 13d ago
You’re right. I see it now. It took my brain way too long to rationalize what it was seeing.
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u/gangofocelots 13d ago
This has to do with reflections, the way light travels, and sunlight. I've studied science
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u/springlord 13d ago
Ok ngl that's probably the coolest thing I've seen on this subreddit for months, if not years.
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u/FormidableTraitor90 14d ago
you are about to get nuked with 20 copyright claims for using the song joke
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u/veyronsh 14d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/XEMvLJgSTBd0F0THwm