Why do you see pools of imaginary water on a hot day?

Question

i know that its just a marage, but how does it happen? like, isnt it funny that the one thing that you want to see is being made up right in front of you? and you see it even if you're not thirsty. anyone know the science behind it?

Answer 1

Most people are familiar with the inferior mirage and have seen 'pools of water' on the road on a hot day. In this case the refraction is caused by a large temperature difference near the road. The light bends so much that an image of the sky is seen on the road. A superior image is less common than an inferior mirage, as it also includes a setting or rising sun. The sun that we see setting or rising is a mirage of the actual sun, which is really below the horizon.

Answer 2

How cool on a hot day!

The heat causes the "water affect."

The eye tries to define what it sees,

and then sends info to the brain.

("If it looks like water, it must be water,")

The light from the sun is actually being bend

by the heated surface.

Answer 3

it's because the heated air above a hot surface like a road or so has different refraction properties (excuse my bad english, I don't know the term) than the cooler air surroundig it thus forming some kind of a lens "bending" the rays of light coming to you from a distant object (say) a tree, making it look like the tree is reflecting in a mirror of water

follow the link to see what I'm talking about:

http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/physics...

Answer 4

Highway mirages are optical illusions, images seen by our eyes but incorrectly interpreted by our mind. What our mind interprets as "water" are actually images formed by light rays from clouds and blue sky above and ahead of us that are refracted by large variations in air density near the surface. Since these rays are bent upward toward our eyes, our brain interprets them as having come up from the ground.

Strong solar heating usually produces large air density variations near the surface. Highway mirages will form when the air near the ground is much hotter than that above it -- the hotter the air, the greater the effect.

The most important factor for inferior mirage formation is the temperature difference between surface air layers rather than their absolute temperatures. Thus, highway mirages can be as commonly seen over dry pavement on sunny winter days as during the summer months.