[Curious Squirrel]

I think we all know where this is going so lets get it over with.

It is Cern.
The corridor looks straight.
But shock/horror, Cern is built into a giant ring.
So something round looks straight. 

Dun dun daaaaaahhhhhh!

In the next thread ... "Willy Wonka has square biscuits that look round!".

Incorrect actually. But nice try.

[3DGeek]

The truth is that this corridor is dead straight - for two miles.

It does NOT curve to follow the curvature of the Earth.

So when you stand at one end and look towards the other, your brain (yes, even FE'ers brains) makes it look like it's curving upwards...it's an optical illusion.   If you hold up a straight-edge, close one eye and lay it over your view of the edge of the corridor - you can see that it's really straight.

The effect isn't very powerful in a photograph because you're not seeing the depth of the corridor with stereo vision.

The reason it's straight is that this is a "linear accelerator" - not one of the ring-shaped ones - and the particles it's accelerating are moving too fast to be obviously deflected by gravity.

The freakiest thing of all (so I'm told) is that if you get a large, heavy ball and release it - it'll roll along this dead flat corridor until it gets to the middle and then stops.

This isn't the only place where these weird effects are visible.  Some large, modern, airports have runways that are dead flat...made that way because it's easier to make sure there aren't any humps or hollows in them by levelling them with a laser - which results in something that's dead flat over many miles.

[xenotolerance]

The ball rolling to the middle makes sense, as it's technically the point of lowest altitude, no?

[Curious Squirrel]

The ball rolling to the middle makes sense, as it's technically the point of lowest altitude, no?

Most likely. It would make sense to have created it 'outwards' from that location as it were.

It's a very interesting sight. As 3D mentioned it's not quite as strong in an image like this as in person. But I find it rather interesting how the votes appear to have split based on the responses that have come in after them. It seems there might be something telling from a psychological standpoint there. Of course correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's certainly interesting isn't it?

[Pete Svarrior]

So when you stand at one end and look towards the other, your brain (yes, even FE'ers brains) makes it look like it's curving upwards...it's an optical illusion.

It doesn't appear that way to me at all.

It seems there might be something telling from a psychological standpoint there. Of course correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's certainly interesting isn't it?

It's completely unremarkable. You've got 5 people who knew the facility in advance (or cheated and searched for the image) and were told that they should be seeing a curve. Then you have 5 people who simply looked at the picture and saw it for what it was - an optically straight corridor with air conditioning. Plus a statistical anomaly of 1 person who didn't know why it looked strange to them, and 1 person who did know why it didn't look strange - but with a sample size of 12 that's only to be expected.

At best, this might demonstrate the power of persuasion and people's naivety. Establish a pre-conceived notion in their minds and they'll find it very difficult to stray away from it.

[Hmmm]

In this video you will get to see Kurt, pay attention he goes by very fast. Plus you will be able to hear the equipment on to make everyone feel like they're contributing in their daily work loads.



Did you see it? The UFO orb at :16  Oh yeah baby my vids have everything.
You will get to love the entertainment level of the J-man and why he is sooo darn special.

J-Man, are you on a vacation? Why nobody pays attention to the orb, if it's real?

[DuniyaGolHai]

So when you stand at one end and look towards the other, your brain (yes, even FE'ers brains) makes it look like it's curving upwards...it's an optical illusion.

It doesn't appear that way to me at all.

It seems there might be something telling from a psychological standpoint there. Of course correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's certainly interesting isn't it?

It's completely unremarkable. You've got 5 people who knew the facility in advance (or cheated and searched for the image) and were told that they should be seeing a curve. Then you have 5 people who simply looked at the picture and saw it for what it was - an optically straight corridor with air conditioning. Plus a statistical anomaly of 1 person who didn't know why it looked strange to them, and 1 person who did know why it didn't look strange - but with a sample size of 12 that's only to be expected.

At best, this might demonstrate the power of persuasion and people's naivety. Establish a pre-conceived notion in their minds and they'll find it very difficult to stray away from it.

That 'pre-conceived notion' will apply to you as well in that case. Pointing finger results, 3 fingers pointing back on you.

[Rounder]

In this video you will get to see Kurt, pay attention he goes by very fast. Plus you will be able to hear the equipment on to make everyone feel like they're contributing in their daily work loads.



Did you see it? The UFO orb at :16  Oh yeah baby my vids have everything.
You will get to love the entertainment level of the J-man and why he is sooo darn special.

J-Man, are you on a vacation? Why nobody pays attention to the orb, if it's real?

J-Child's brain may be on vacation, that "UFO orb" is obviously the reflection of a light bulb in the glass separating the camera from the hallway.

[Curious Squirrel]

So when you stand at one end and look towards the other, your brain (yes, even FE'ers brains) makes it look like it's curving upwards...it's an optical illusion.

It doesn't appear that way to me at all.

It seems there might be something telling from a psychological standpoint there. Of course correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's certainly interesting isn't it?

It's completely unremarkable. You've got 5 people who knew the facility in advance (or cheated and searched for the image) and were told that they should be seeing a curve. Then you have 5 people who simply looked at the picture and saw it for what it was - an optically straight corridor with air conditioning. Plus a statistical anomaly of 1 person who didn't know why it looked strange to them, and 1 person who did know why it didn't look strange - but with a sample size of 12 that's only to be expected.

At best, this might demonstrate the power of persuasion and people's naivety. Establish a pre-conceived notion in their minds and they'll find it very difficult to stray away from it.

I saw something odd with the image the first time I saw it before having any idea what it was, although I didn't know why it looked odd. Also, the whole point here is there is *no* curve. The floor of the hallway is perfectly flat. Flat, not level. I agree, small sample size. I just find it interesting, based on those who have also commented, there doesn't appear to be a person from the FE community who found it looked odd. It's certainly not enough to be statistically significant (I didn't expect there to be enough replies for that) but it's interesting to see the difference in snap decisions about the image even from that small group.

[3DGeek]

So when you stand at one end and look towards the other, your brain (yes, even FE'ers brains) makes it look like it's curving upwards...it's an optical illusion.

It doesn't appear that way to me at all.

It seems there might be something telling from a psychological standpoint there. Of course correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's certainly interesting isn't it?

It's completely unremarkable. You've got 5 people who knew the facility in advance (or cheated and searched for the image) and were told that they should be seeing a curve. Then you have 5 people who simply looked at the picture and saw it for what it was - an optically straight corridor with air conditioning. Plus a statistical anomaly of 1 person who didn't know why it looked strange to them, and 1 person who did know why it didn't look strange - but with a sample size of 12 that's only to be expected.

At best, this might demonstrate the power of persuasion and people's naivety. Establish a pre-conceived notion in their minds and they'll find it very difficult to stray away from it.

I saw something odd with the image the first time I saw it before having any idea what it was, although I didn't know why it looked odd. Also, the whole point here is there is *no* curve. The floor of the hallway is perfectly flat. Flat, not level. I agree, small sample size. I just find it interesting, based on those who have also commented, there doesn't appear to be a person from the FE community who found it looked odd. It's certainly not enough to be statistically significant (I didn't expect there to be enough replies for that) but it's interesting to see the difference in snap decisions about the image even from that small group.

Honestly, a photo doesn't reproduce the full weirdness of it.   It requires our sense of depth perception to ram our brains into thinking "This is a REALLY long, straight, corridor!" - and then "How come it's not behaving like other long, straight things?" - and finally "Huh!  It must be curving upwards!"...which, for all normal definitions of the word "up", it really is!

The "rolling a ball along it" thing is interesting though.  The "lowest point" is in the middle - where it's closest to the center of the earth...so the ball rolls along the corridor, then back and forth a bit - and eventually stops in the middle.

That would be a REALLY neat disproof of FET...but sadly, I don't see anyplace where they posted a video of that happening.

I agree that the poll didn't really prove much.  Very small sample size and very, very high probability of cheating!