Uphill/downhill

[Dr Jekyll]

What roads do PHers know of that look like they slope one way but actually slope the other?

There is a stretch in Epping Forest that Chingford driving instructors always like getting pupils to practice hill starts on.

There also is a subtle but strange one on the B4155 between Henley on Thames and Marlow. Going east out of Medmenham there is very short downhill stretch followed by what an uphill stretch round the next two bends. Coming back the other way the same stretch still looks to be uphill.

Any others?

[StuntmanMike]

The magic road in that episode of Father Ted.

[NervySi]

I was on an unclassified road in the Dales once, and stopped behind a parked Beetle to let a car come the other way. I could see the other car coming from over the roof of the Beetle, and I was (I thought) quite a bit higher than it. I was therefore a bit surprised to let off the brake and roll back, away from the Beetle and 'back up the hill'

I assume that my mind's reference point for a level horizon was the surrounding distant hills, which were giving me a false impression somehow. Not a very good explanation, sorry, but it was pretty weird.

[can't remember]

Electric Brae in Ayrshire. Stop on the hill, take your foot off the brake and witness your car roll uphill. Genuinely freaky.

[iphonedyou]

There's one on the North coast of Northern Ireland.

[Red Devil]

NervySi said:

I assume that my mind's reference point for a level horizon was the surrounding distant hills, which were giving me a false impression somehow. Not a very good explanation, sorry, but it was pretty weird.

That's exactly what is happening (see the second video below). We don't actually see with our eyes. They are merely receptors which pass data to the brain which then tries to make sense of it. The best known examples of such optical illusions are a Penrose Triangle and Escher's Waterfall.

can't remember said:

Electric Brae in Ayrshire. Stop on the hill, take your foot off the brake and witness your car roll uphill. Genuinely freaky.

Except it isn't of course. The Scots haven't reinvented the laws of physics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqOYbeTaqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRzwNycQTok

Hangman's Hill, High Beech, Epping Forest - here.
Dancers End Lane, Aston Clinton - here.
Also on the A272 west of Rogate village.
No vids of it though as the location on a very busy road makes it far too dangerous to try.

Edited by Red Devil on Sunday 10th August 23:20

[can't remember]

Red Devil said:

Except it isn't of course. The Scots haven't reinvented the laws of physics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqOYbeTaqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRzwNycQTok

Hangman's Hill, High Beech, Epping Forest - here.
Dancers End Lane, Aston Clinton - here.
Also on the A272 west of Rogate village.
No vids of it though as the location on a very busy road makes it far too dangerous to try.

Edited by Red Devil on Sunday 10th August 23:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZ12UGiisM#t=20

[Red Devil]

[Mostro]

Red Devil said:

Except it isn't of course. The Scots haven't reinvented the laws of physics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqOYbeTaqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRzwNycQTok

Hangman's Hill, High Beech, Epping Forest - here.
Dancers End Lane, Aston Clinton - here.
Also on the A272 west of Rogate village.
No vids of it though as the location on a very busy road makes it far too dangerous to try.

Edited by Red Devil on Sunday 10th August 23:20

That first vid (Yaris) even looks downhill to me. Obviously optical illusions where the reference points aren't quite as they would seem.

[magpies]

Dr Jekyll said:

What roads do PHers know of that look like they slope one way but actually slope the other way
Any others?

You do realise you can't use the word sl#pe
as it is a naughty word in some far off land........almost got Jeremy Clarkson the sack

how effin stupid is that

to us a slope is an incline