Gravity Hill, the hill where cars roll up and water runs upward!

[erikiksaz]

This is one of the strangest places i've been. It's in Pasadena (or Altadena) California, kind of in a hick area. Anyways, there's a slight hill, and this is how i'll explain it:

hillside 1 --> / \ <-- hillside 2

So you drive down hillside 2, put your car on neutral, and let your foot off the gas. The car will roll up to the top of the hill and eventually roll over to hillside 1. Now by the time you've rolled over to hillside 1, you could do the same thing--go neutral, and it'll pull your car back to the top of the hill

And believe it or not, the same thing happens with water. I poured about a liters worth of water on hillside 2 and it moved towards ~2 feet to the top of the hill. I don't think it's an optical illusion, it looks pretty much like any other hill. I just couldn't find any explanation!

 

[ed21x]

do you have pics of this place?

 

[notfred]

Yeah, there are a couple places in the world where that happens... I don't think anyone has come up with an explanation for it yet...

So, if you just leave your car in neutral, will it eventaully stop in top of the hill?

 

[Paulson]

We have a hill like that, you go off an offramp and if you stop, put it in neutral, the car actually rolls backwards up the off ramp (and believe me, it's a hill)

I don't really understand it but.. oh well

 

[The Sauce]

Miniature black holes. Jeez don't you guys know anything?

 

[Jmman]

Opitcal illusion is how it works I believe......

 

[compudog]

There is one in a rural hick area here in PA also. It's freaky and there is no real explanantion.

 

[Jmman]

Yep, optical illusion........physics

 

[bootymac]

We have one of those rural hick areas too, and it's freaky as hell!

 

[boyRacer]

Well people always tell me it's supposed to be ghosts pushing your car up... when we actually went there... we got lost... hahaha... but i heard its so damn crowded it's not even scary supposedly... and when you put powder around your car you'll see handprints or whatever.... ooooooooooooook... so many urband legends around here.

 

[yobarman]

Originally posted by: compudog
There is one in a rural hick area here in PA also. It's freaky and there is no real explanantion.

yeah apparently there is one and we spent a lot of time looking for it in Bucks County... a group of us went there but we couldnt find it so me and my friend left, a couple others stayed behind and said that they found it and it worked. who knows if i should believe them..

there's a lot of "haunted" places around here... like Cry Baby Bridge.... apparently if you turn your car off on this bring and just sit there you can hear a baby crying or somethin...

there's also the Jersey Devil.... etc etc.

 

[erikiksaz]

Originally posted by: ed21x
do you have pics of this place?

Nope, no pictures, sorry. I wish i had a camera to take pictures of the water though. It doesn't look any different from any other hill.

 

[erikiksaz]

Originally posted by: notfred
Yeah, there are a couple places in the world where that happens... I don't think anyone has come up with an explanation for it yet...

So, if you just leave your car in neutral, will it eventaully stop in top of the hill?

You'll pick up enough speed to roll over the top of the hill, i'm guesing that you'll cross the top at ~4 mph.

 

[SilverThief]

Optical illusion for sure. Sigfried and Roy are hiding in the bushes.
:Q

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: erikiksaz

Originally posted by: ed21x
do you have pics of this place?

Nope, no pictures, sorry. I wish i had a camera to take pictures of the water though. It doesn't look any different from any other hill.

how tall is the hill?

 

[Doggiedog]

There is a place like that in NJ too. It was on a news segment and they debunked it as an optical illusion.

 

[d33pt]

bring a bubble level next time..bubbles dont lie

 

[erikiksaz]

Next time i'll try to bring a camera and that bubble thing--if i can find one. If not, umm, i can technically make one with a straw and water, right?

 

[Howard]

Not unless you have force the straw to keep a very slight curvature, and then have it attached to something flat so you can actually measure the angle of the plane.

 

[Sketcher]

There's a road that dips between hills in northern Minnesota that my family takes friends to and parks the car at the low point in the road. Really looks freaky that the car rolls part way back up the hill.

But.... it's an optical illusion. The road and surroundings are visually misleading.

 

[jemcam]

There's one in Central Florida too, near where I grew up.

Link here

 

[erikiksaz]

Originally posted by: Howard
Not unless you have force the straw to keep a very slight curvature, and then have it attached to something flat so you can actually measure the angle of the plane.

Oh crud, i was to measure the angle? I thought i was just supposed to verify it's actually a hill Stupid me. Darn, well, i won't have that tool then.

 

[tk149]

How about using a piece of string with a weight attached. And a protractor. This won't disprove the "black hole" theory but it will disprove the ghost one.

 

[PoPPeR]

I'm not sure if we're talkinga bout the same place, isn't Pasadena south Cali (i'm not too good with geography and i'm too lazy to look), but up here in the Bay Area (walnut creek) i've heard a lot fo stuff about gravity hill too. Everyone says it only works "at night" to try to scare you... personally i haven't gone yet and i'm not really interested

 

[Rastus]

I saw something on discovery channel that might have been that gravity hill in California you are talking about. They explained the whole thing, and yes, it is an optical illusion.

I know a spot where an irrigation canal apparently flows uphill.