Gravity Hills: Where gravity seems to work wrong

Our physical world is bounded by the rules of physics. We can not do whatever we want defying those rules. 

Defying the rules of physics is only possible in fiction and movies. Like there is a movie named ‘Upside Down’ where two worlds co-exist with opposite laws of gravity. In one world regular gravity works like the earth. But in another world, gravity is nuts.

Well, that’s not a shocking thing for us because it’s a movie indeed. But what if we find a place in our mother earth where gravity works backwards?

Located on the border between Turkey and Armenia, there is a hill known as Aragat’s gravity hill where this ridiculous phenomenon can be experienced. If a ball is placed there, it goes straight uphill without any external force. 

The same is the case with a car. If you put your car in neutral gear, the car will not roll downhill rather it will start moving uphill. 

There is a river nearby that goes up too. Thousands of travellers around the world come to this mountain every year to witness the incredible anti-gravity phenomenon. 

“Down is up and up is down, and that will blow your mind,” is the short and crisp description of the place said by famous Israeli YouTuber Nuseir Yassin, widely popular for his YouTube channel Nas Daily.

The more surprising thing is that it is not the only place on earth to defy regular gravity. There is ‘Nana Ghat’ in Maharashtra, India where reverse waterfall takes place. 

The same sort of waterfall is found in Derbyshire, England too. There are places in Florida, California, Oregon, and many others where anti-gravity is observed. All these places are known as magnetic hill, mystery spot, gravity road, anti-gravity hill, etc.

But how is this even possible to flout the rules of gravity? The interesting fact is that no scientific rule is being violated here. 

In these places, the layout of the surrounding land produces an optical illusion, making a downhill slope appear to be an uphill slope. According to the famous Materials Science engineer Mike North, “gravity defines up and down. Not our visual perception of it. Gravity points one direction as down and things go that way.” 

So even if a car or ball is rolling uphill, that’s the actual down for that place. This is a visual deception. People take the surrounding mountains as the horizon or reference to determine the direction of the hill. 

In our plain eyes, it seems that the road is going uphill concerning the circumambient mountains. But geographically the road is going downhill with the true horizon of mountains. It is not the gravity that is crazy here rather it is the perception of our eyes.

But if you ever get the chance to visit any of the anti-gravity hills, don’t think much about the explanation. Go crazy and enjoy the beguiling experience. 

Because not everywhere a startling place is found where climbing up a hill is a lot easier than going down, apparently!

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