Most people have witnessed mirages such as the distant “puddles” that appear on a highway when the pavement is warmed by the Sun. The warmed surface heats the nearby air creating a temperature gradient with the cooler (and more dense) air above. The apparent displacement of distant objects occurs as light refracts through the different air densities. Rays of light from the sky that are originally directed toward the ground can be bent upward, appearing to a viewer as though coming from the ground. This effect is known as an inferior mirage; a superior mirage occurs when cooler air is underneath.1,2 In this paper, a mirage is created indoors using an electric hotplate and a saucepan filled with ice water.
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