Eliza_5

Today I visited Magnetic Hill, which is located at the northern edge of the city of Moncton in the Canadian province if New Brunswick. Magnetic Hill is an example of the gravity hill type of optical illusion created by rising and descending terrain. I arrived early, very intrigued by the Hill (how could a hill be magnetic!!) Our tour group was in time for the introduction briefing by Max Dolben, a retired physicist who now runs information sessions about Magnetic Hill and the gravity-hill theory. We gathered at a small café, just near the base of a ridge name Lutes Mountain, just near the location of Magnetic Hill. Over warm coffee!!! (mmmm…) Max told us that in the 1800’s; a cart path was built from the City of Moncton onto the ridge. The path was subsequently expanded during the early 1900’s and with the dawning of the automobile in 1931 it was noticed that at one point near the base of the ridge when driving south, motorists were required to accelerate in order to prevent rolling backwards (which actually appears to be uphill). This became a local novelty and was consequently known as Moncton’s “Magnetic Hill”. Max went on to explain that the gravity-hill illusion occurs where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope, this is a result of an obscured horizon which makes it hard to judge the slope of a surface. After the Second World War, Max told us that that a Mountain Road bypass was built further west of Magnetic Hill and the Hill became an old tourist attraction. This is a [|postcard image] from the site. Nowadays however, the government has funded the area for tourism and now a golf course, zoo, railway and water theme park have all been built around the area. We then were given the opportunity to experience the Magnetic Hill drive; I opted to go with a car with some of the girls from my tour group. Max had arranged three hire cars for us to use. Jessie, the girl who opted to drive us, seemed a little nervous. She was from the USA and had heard quite a bit about the famous Magnetic Hill so she couldn’t pass up the chance to drive it. We had to pay a $2 fee to drive to the end of the road. Jessie then put the car in neutral and it began to roll backwards (which felt like uphill!!). We all squealed. Louise, another girl in the car, then pointed out the drainage ditches next to us, where the water also appeared to be running uphill. It was a really weird feeling and when we got out of the car we all felt a bit dizzy. We looked at each other and all laughed.