Mystified by Magnetic Hill, New Brunswick

One of my favorite experiences on our recent trip to the Nova Scotia was stopping near Moncton, New Brunswick to feel our car being "pulled backwards" up Magnetic Hill!

 

Magnetic Hill has amazed visitors for decades! So I wanted to experience it, too!











We were instructed to drive to the bottom of the hill, stop at a white pole marker at the side of the road (which isn't too clear in the picture as it is in the shadows of the trees). Then we were to put the car in neutral, remove feet from the brakes... and steer carefully, because we would immediately be "pulled" back up the hill and we wouldn't want to land in the ditch!

We followed the instructions and, sure enough - faster than we would have liked - we found
ourselves moving back up the hill! The video clip was too big to upload to the blog, so here it is, on You Tube.

Then we watched as someone else did it.

This is weird! Can we try it again? we asked. They weren't busy, so we were permitted to repeat everything again. And again the same thing happened. A very strange experience!

Do you want me to explain what is happening? The young man who worked at the hill asked us. It's really an optical illusion. When you reach the pole at the bottom of the hill, the land formations give the illusion that you are at the bottom of a hill, but you are really at the top! When you take your foot off the brake and put the car in neutral, you are driving backwards down the hill, not up. But it looks as if you are going up, not down.

An optical illusion?!! I believe him because he works there - and because it's the only thing that makes sense! But even so, my eyes didn't want to believe it! 



Does this look like we are currently at the top or bottom of the hill?! We have just stopped rolling down the hill, so we must be at the bottom! But my eyes still tell me that the car I see in the distance, just beginning to roll, is the bottom of the hill - not the top!