This would be easier to answer with a diagram, but here goes. On a sunny day, air near the ground is warmer because of the heat radiated from pavement, sand, etc. Light from the sky will refract (bend or be redirected) because of the difference in temperature of the air closer and closer to the ground. When it reaches the eye of an observer, it will appear to have come from the direction of the ground. So, the observer sees light from the sky coming from the ground. We see light from the sky reflected from the surface of a puddle of water or a lake in much the same way - coming from the earth instead of the sky. So, we interpret it in the same way, as water. Palm trees and other images associated with mirages are the stuff of movies or the imagination.
Alternate (better) answer:It may surprise you to learn that light usually does not travel a straight line
through the air, but rather its path is almost always curved slightly downward
as it travels. The curvature is usually small. We're never aware of it ... we
simply perceive an object to be located in whatever direction its light reaches
us from.
But when atmospheric conditions change drastically at different heights above
the surface, the downward curvature of light becomes extreme, and it may
become noticeable.
Since the light from an object curves strongly downward as it travels under
these conditions, the path by which an object is seen leaves the object at a
high vertical angle, can extend an unusually great distance, and arrives at the
observer from a high vertical angle ... it looks to the observer as if the object is
high off the ground.
These atmospheric conditions occur in places where there can be great swings in
temperature between day and night ... like deserts ... and where there can be
great differences of temperature at different heights above the ground ... like
deserts again.
It's no accident that the legends of flying horses and magic carpets originated
in the Arabian desert.
mirages are formed due to the total internal reflection of light
High gradient of atmospheric refractivity with altitude.
it formed glaciers it formed glaciers
Fossils can be formed by:MummificationPetrificationDesiccationRelated question on Answers.com:How are fossils formed?
it was formed when earth had a belly acke, asces
It was formed by techtonic plates coliding together and created the volcano.
No. They will look different.
yes mirages are real
Mirages_are_caused_by"
All mirages are optical illusions but all optical illusions are not mirages.
All mirages are optical illusions but all optical illusions are not mirages.
The cast of Mirages - 2011 includes: Aisling Mallon as Sophie Bauer
by rain or something....
Since mirages are caused by heat distorting light, and that tar-seal can get quite hot on a sunny, cloudless day.
First of all, what's a mirage? Mirages are not optical illusions, as many people (and Web sites!) think. They are real phenomena of atmospheric optics, caused by strong ray-bending in layers with steep thermal gradients. Because mirages are real physical phenomena, they can be photographed.
Mirages de Paris - 1933 was released on: France: 13 January 1933 (Paris) USA: 24 December 1933
Yes. Example: extreme heat causes mirages.
Clarisse Chanda has written: 'Mirages des Florides'
Mirages are an optical illusion caused when an object is viewed through a layer of heated area, such as exists in the desert. Light rays viewed through this layer are bent and frequently appear to be a bluish patch, like an oasis, in the distance.