Dr. Wolfers is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. The air is thick with recession talk, and stocks are cratering. But it just may be a mirage, a refraction ...

For the same reason that cartoon characters lost in the desert often think they see an oasis: a mirage caused by refraction. First, a quick physics lesson.

The shape on the horizon that Maricarmen Khalaf could see from a ferry travelling from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay looked like a ...

A mirage is an optical illusion that occurs when light rays bend due to refraction in layers of air with different densities. This phenomenon creates the appearance of a distant object or scene, which ...

The single-beam mirage effect, also known as photothermal deflection, is studied using a free-standing, highly aligned carbon nanotube aerogel sheet as the heat source. The extremely low thermal ...

If you were standing on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and spotted a 100-foot-high vertical wall of water, odds are you would have been perplexed if not frightened.

That oasis in the desert is just a trick of air and light. Learn about the physics of mirages from scientists.

The short answer is refraction, the bending of light rays as they travel through different materials. Mirages happen as light waves travel through air at different densities.

‘The mirage and related refraction phenomena, such as looming, contributed to the confusion at the time of the accident,’ said Dr Young, from San Diego State University.