Mirage

See also: Mirage (homonymy)

The mirage is not a Optical illusion (a belief) but an optical reality that the man is present or not (thus objective).

The photography of this mirage created by the differences in temperature of the air proves of it optical reality (traces) and not its illusion (neither the eye nor the brain are mistaken while seeing trembling the air or the rays seeming to reflect itself on the ground).

The mirage does not have anything subjective: one can photograph it. The mirage does not have anything irrational: he is explained by the geometrical Optique and the laws of the Réfraction. The illusion it, it is seen like such on a photographic reproduction not comprising it (an initial circle remaining a circle on the photograph but always badly interpreted by the brain behind the eye).

Hot mirage

The hot mirage or lower mirage is not a phenomenon reserved for the overheated deserts. One usually observes it on the roads in summer: the road heated by the sun causes an important variation in temperature (very hot air close to the road), which varies the index of refraction of the air according to altitude. The eye then receives the color of the sky by a luminous ray being brought closer to the ground before undergoing a deviation. That creates the impression of a remote water puddle pool which disappears when one advances.

Cold mirage


Diagram of a higher mirage
Also called higher mirage , it is the opposite of the hot or lower mirages: the hottest layers are high in the atmosphere whereas the coldest layers are close to the ground. With the rotundity of the ground, any object beyond the horizon can then appear.

Fata Morgana

Certain exceptional situations combine the lower and higher mirages, then giving an unreal image to the remote landscape. This phenomenon, observable in particular in the Strait of Messine, had been allotted by the Old ones to the Fée Morgane. From where the name of this demonstration curious about the properties of the luminous rays.

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • the mirages the phenomenon of the explained mirages
  • a first approach physical
  • Photos of mirages
  • Create even a mirage (described and illustrated experiment),
  • Mirages in Finland (in English) supplemented by Photos with gogo
  • Étude with diagrams (in English)
  • Étude with diagrams (on French, page 06-51 and following)

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