A few days ago, someone claimed to have taken a photo of the "Monster-Suppressing Pagoda" in West Lake, Hangzhou. According to the photo, it should be in the evening, the light strips on Leifeng Pagoda have been lit, and the clouds above Leifeng Pagoda There is a "pagoda" in it, and what's even stranger is that the "pagoda" is also glowing, very bright.
Many people think it is a mirage phenomenon, but after analysis, it is found that it is just the reflection of the rear view from the glass mirror. The so-called "demon-suppressing pagoda" is actually the Baochu Tower behind the viewer. When the front of the glass is not very bright, it is very It is easy to reflect the bright landscape behind. If you don’t believe it, try it.
While everyone was talking about the "Monster-Suppressing Pagoda" incident in West Lake, Hangzhou, another strange scene appeared in the sky in Haikou, Hainan: a "castle in the air" appeared out of thin air on the cloud-shrouded sky, like an ancient palace. Seeing this The strange scene evokes many people's memories of the journey to the west.
Obviously, this is a mirage phenomenon that is guaranteed to be fake. Why are you so sure? Because at this time, Haikou, Hainan indeed has all the natural conditions to produce a mirage phenomenon.
First, north of Haikou is the Qiongzhou Strait with a width of about 30 kilometers. The 30 kilometers of water is enough to refract light and bend the light that travels in a straight line. Across the Qiongzhou Strait is the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, and far across from Haikou is Xuwen County in Zhanjiang.
In 2019, a mirage of "ancient buildings" appeared in Hongze Lake, Jiangsu. Many people speculated that it might be a confusion of time and space. Later, someone found the original scene in Laozishan Town, southwest of Hongze Lake. Laozi Mountain There are many ancient buildings in the town, Anhuai Zen Temple, Bagua Tower, etc. Laozishan Town is about 20 to 30 kilometers away from the viewer.
Tuesday, July is in the hot summer, and the air temperature is much higher than the sea temperature. According to the latest water temperature data provided by CDAS, the surface water temperature of the sea areas near Hainan is about 29°C. The temperature of some more mobile sea areas may be lower, but in Hainan The maximum temperature exceeds 33℃, sometimes even higher.
The air near the sea level is affected by the temperature of the sea water, and the temperature must be lower. When the air temperature at high altitude is greater than the air temperature near the sea level, the light will be refracted, and the light will bend downward, sending the invisible landscape to our eyes. , so a "castle in the air" mirage will appear in the sky.
Based on the principle of mirage generation, we boldly speculate that the original scene of the "castle in the sky" mirage in Haikou, Hainan should be in Xuwen County across the Qiongzhou Strait, relatively close to the private houses on the shore of the Qiongzhou Strait. According to the style of the "castle in the sky" , should be the roofs of a row of low-rise buildings.
Have you noticed that the "castle in the sky" mirage looks very huge, its size is several times larger than the nearby buildings, let alone the original scene dozens of kilometers away. The question is, why is the mirage? Is it many times bigger than the distant view?
This has to start with the perspective of the human eye and the refraction of light. The size of things we see with our eyes is determined by the size of the perspective. For the same object, the closer the distance, the larger the perspective. The larger the object seen by the eyes, the farther the perspective. The smaller it is, the smaller the object the eye sees.
Under normal circumstances, the angle of view of an object very far away is very small, and it looks very small, like the tip of a needle. Therefore, based on the position of the viewer, the original scene of the mirage is located several 10 kilometers away, and it is impossible to see it. Yes, even if you could see the original scene with your own eyes, it would be extremely small.
Why is the mirage many times larger than the original scene? This is because when light propagates in air with uneven density, it is bent due to refraction, which is equivalent to a natural " convex lens ". After bending, the viewing angle of the mirage is much larger than the original viewing angle.
I believe many people know the principle of convex lens. A convex lens can refract light, and the light emitted through the convex lens is bent. If the convex lens is made of glass, the refractive index is about 1.5. The convex lens brings the flat line light to a point, which is It is called "focus", and the distance from the convex lens to the focus is called the focal length. There is no fixed value for the focal length, which is related to the material and thickness, but it is generally about 10 centimeters.
Convex lenses can play the role of "magnification". Within the focal length of the convex lens, you can see the enlarged upright virtual image of the object. Beyond the focal length, you can see the enlarged inverted image. This is because the convex lens magnifies the virtual image perspective of the object. The larger the virtual image angle of view is, the larger the virtual image we will see.
Light bends in the air. Its principle is similar to the "convex lens principle", which magnifies the virtual image perspective of the object. Therefore, the mirage we see is obviously several times the size of the original scene. If the mirage were not magnified many times, No matter how good our eyesight is, it is impossible to see the "mirage" phenomenon.
The cruise ship in the picture above appears to be hovering in the air, which is a mirage phenomenon. In short, the "castle in the sky" mirage appearing in Haikou, Hainan is indeed a mirage phenomenon. The mirage is many times larger than the original scene. The original scene is probably in Xuwen County across the Qiongzhou Strait. If you don't believe it, you can go there and look for it. Can find the original scene. For interesting and informative scientific content, please follow the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration
