Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months ago

When you see 'heat rising', what are you actually seeing?

Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months ago

Like the title says: when you see “heat rising” (the wavy/blurry area above a heat source), what are you actually seeing?

Bonus question: How does that cast a shadow? I noticed when I was opening my air fryer, I could see the shadow of the heat rising but, looking at the hot basket itself, couldn’t see it.

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CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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2 months ago
This video by Steve Mould shows this with wavey acrylic designed to project an image using caustics:

https://youtu.be/wk67eGXtbIw

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