Mystery Spot
Mystery Spot is a tourist attraction located in Santa Cruz, California in the United States. The operators of the small site (which is about 150 feet in diameter) claim that it is a place where the laws of physics and gravity do not apply, and provide a number of interesting demonstrations in support of these claims.
Several of the phenomena demonstrated by the tour guides (and by visitors using levels) could be construed as rather difficult to explain. Two people standing on opposite sides of a level surface appear to change height, and a ball will roll to one direction on the same surface.
The phenomena that visitors to the Mystery Spot may experience result from the effects of forced perspective, optical adaptation, and certain optical illusions in combination with the steep gradient of the site. That is, the situation inside a Mystery Spot is arranged in some way so that the visitors don't feel that the site's gradient is actually steep (the site is actually tilted, that is), despite the fact that it is.
As visitors travel through the site they habituate to this gradient. The effects of this adaptation are then exploited, especially within closed structures, so that visitors may feel as though gravity does not operate as it should in the Mystery Spot.
Other similar "attractions"
Such attractions are relatively common, and exist in many U.S. states under names such as Mystery Hill.
Near Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada stands Magnetic Hill, where a similar illusion exists.
A similar such attraction, known by the same name, "Mystery Spot", can be found in Northern Michigan, specifically, in St. Ignace, on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The attraction poses a striking similarity to the Santa Cruz attraction with the same name, with a background of surveyors from California making the discovery.
External links
- Famous Mystery Spot Illusions Explained (SandlotScience.com) - this site contains explanation about how Mystery Spots work, including a list of mystery spots (spoiler warning)
- California location
- Michigan location