Is This Boat Floating In Mid-Air? No! But Here's Why It Looks That Way

#Outrageous_Acts
This is one crazy optical illusion.

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[cmplz]

The world probably wasn't rendering

[Caesar]

so thats how legend about flying dutchman was born

[Durrpadil]

I would be curious to see a drone approach the craft to see the illusion shift at closer proximity.

[Seapin]

I live on the bay here in Melbourne, Australia & it's quite common to see the effects of refracted light on objects on the horizon. Ships can appear stretched vertically as well as distant landscapes. The effect is more noticeable through binoculars or zoom lenses rather than with the naked eye. I have seen container ships "floating" like this one but I put down to the sea in the foreground being the same colour as the lower sky, effectively obscuring the horizon. From personal experience, that's what I think is possibly happening here rather than a superior mirage

[randallabracadabra]

Or it's just a false horizon illusion, the actual horizon may be closer to eye level, but since it's so far away, the atmosphere in between us and the real horizon line may make everything at a certain distance appear the same color as the atmosphere above it, sort of like how the dark areas of the moon appear sky blue when the moon is out during daylight.

[srushtikadam]

Why doesn't that happen with the water layer beneath the boat?

[morbydvisns]

The 'mirage' isn't the boat being supposedly lifted, it's the water under the boat reflecting the blue sky to the viewer, like the road sometimes does when it looks like water reflecting the sky towards the viewer. You can tell by drawing a straight line from left to right, the 'horizon' is not straight as expected.

[WadesUnderworld]

Wow, I can’t believe how many people are actually wrong about this, I didn’t realise it was this bad. Fata Morganas are on the horizon and usually heavily distort anything in the mirage. These clear flying boats which are relatively close are not mirages.

[mibit]

It is not good to believe your eyes always!

[boosomentity]

this is incorrect; the compound reflectivity of the water past great distances reflects the sky back towards our limited angular resolution which in addition to the atmospheric occlusion of the atmosphere creates the apparent horizon lower than that of the boat whichin this case appears to have been lensed by the atmosphere to appear closer than it is creating the illusion that it's actually float in the air above the water's surface,
if the atmosphere was less dense and less humid the appearance of the object would appear to shrink and drop in conjunction with the elevated angle of the newly apparent horizon until the limitation of the observers angular resolution is exceeded or is blocked by the accumulated density of the atmosphere,
which is why we are able to observe objects over far greater distances in greater clarity with less distortion over land and even more so at higher altitudes.

[pendalink]

If the boat's bottom is in a cool region, why doesn't the boat just appear stretched out? Bottom of the boat shows little distortion but top of boat appears higher, that kind of thing

[html]

Flat earthers: FLAT EARTH CONFIRMED!!!

[SunShine-kdtd]

This isn't a Fata Morgana (mirage). There's no reflection (mirror image) under or above the boat. The ocean can be seen faintly under and behind the boat.

[Mr.Rogers]

Another give away is the lack of a keel under the sailboat. But can someone explain to me why we don't see some of the water adjacent to the boat "floating" and how is it that we can see the water and horizon behind the boat?

[jacobrebuilds]

This must've been why people thought there was a "Flying Dutchman"

[ChrisRedfield--]

Isn't a fatamorgana supposed to be inverted?

[JMartJr]

This is totally wrong. This is not a fata morgana, which always mirror-images what is reflected in the mirage. It is not a mirage at all. This is called a "false horizon, " it is caused when the water out around the boat is smoother than the water closer to shore -- it reflects the sky better, and looks like just more sky, so the boat looks like it is floating in the sky. The edge of the rougher water creates a false horizon.

[markspott]

Why doesn't WATER around the boat appear with the boat? The seems to be a complete isolation of the boat! Seems
like SOME water near or around the boat should experience the same fata morgana effect.

[sranzuline]

hmm i still don't get it. all three of them didn't explain it well

[jedgould]

:23 Hakeem wow what a voice for an astrophysicist!