Spirits or Science? Cars Are Pulled Up Hill on Spooky New York Road

There's a road in New York where your car appears to travel backward up a hill. Is it spirits pushing your car or an optical illusion?

In Middlesex, New York you'll find 'spook hill.' A place where you put your car into reverse and watch it get pulled back up the hill. Watch it for yourself.

Native American Spirits

Want to try it? Just look for the intersection of Newell Road and Spike Road in Middlesex, New York where legend has it, Native American spirits, whose bodies are buried nearby, are pushing your car back up the hill. If that's true, how are the other 'gravity hills' explained?

Hundreds of Gravity Hills

There are several places in New York and hundreds more around the world that have been recognized as 'gravity hills.' Promised Land Road in Portville, New York is one. McKinney Road in Pennsylvania is another where someone rolled a bowling ball up the hill.

Optical Illusion

Scientists says it's actually an optical illusion of the surrounding area. Researchers from Universities of Padova and Pavia in Italy found that without a true horizon in sight, the human brain could be tricked by common landmarks such as trees and signs.

The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon. Without a horizon, it becomes difficult for a person to judge the slope of a surface, as a reliable reference is missing. Objects that one would normally assume to be more or less perpendicular to the ground, such as trees, maybe leaning, offsetting the visual reference.

Whether it's spirits or simply science, it's still pretty spooky. You can check out all the gravity hills around the world at Wikipedia.