Featured Image Credit: u/Josiah-Herrera / Reddit
Topics: Conspiracy Theory, Reddit, Cars
Emily Brown
You only really need a basic grasp of gravity to understand that things shouldn't be able to roll uphill, and yet footage shared online shows one car somehow doing exactly that.
The bizarre scene was filmed in Costa Rica, when a family packed into their vehicle and while driving along a highway experienced the strange phenomenon.
In a post appropriately shared on the Reddit threat 'r/blackmagicf*ckery', the road was dubbed 'magnetic' as the video showed the car moving backwards despite the driver not having his feet on the pedals.
"We are on the highway, that is uphill behind us, we are currently moving. My dad is not using any pedals, the car is in neutral and we are going backwards uphill... this is a magnetic road. It's crazy, it's legit," the baffled passenger could be heard saying.
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The poster offered another view from the outside of the car, though that's admittedly less convincing as it's impossible to say whether the driver was secretly hitting the accelerator from inside the car.
Though the footage inside the car is pretty confusing, it's not been enough to convince some viewers who have come across similar scenes before.
Responding to the post, many Reddit users suggested the scene was likely filmed on a road dubbed a 'gravity hill', with one responding: "A gravity hill, also known as a magnetic hill, mystery hill, mystery spot, gravity road, or anti-gravity hill, is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces an optical illusion, making a slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill slope."
This theory suggests the car is actually rolling downhill, but that it's merely the tilt of the landscape around the car that makes it look like it's moving upwards.
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A similar road has been found before in Ayrshire, Scotland, where locals told tales of gravity 'working differently' in the area, or a 'curse' which pulled vehicles in the wrong direction.
However, an investigation into the land revealed that what was thought to be the bottom of the hill was actually the top - it just looked the opposite way around due to the tilted landmass around it.
The scene was dubbed a 'giant optical illusion', and Reddit users have made clear that they're not actually uncommon.
"False flat, when you’re a cyclist, you notice them all over the place," one person wrote, while others referenced similar roads in Texas in San Antonio, Washington, France, Northern California and Pennsylvania.
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In spite of the non-believers, however, the poster attempted to indicate they were going uphill as they included the start and end elevation at the end of the clip.
According to them, their journey started at 1,132 feet and ended at 1,146 feet - an apparent incline of 14 feet.
So, is it an illusion, or is it really black magic?