Does anyone know what this is called?
When you’re driving and looking at the road at a certain angle, and there seems to be a reflection on the road (it looks like water). And as you go closer the “water,” it seems to disappear before your eyes.
It’s not evaporation!
It’s similar to a mirage. The heat causes the air to move, and makes it look like a reflection, but when you get close, the angle of the light alters and it vanishes.
I think “mirage” is the best word for it, actually.
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it is called ’seeing’ or ‘mirage’. This occurs when temperature gradients distort the light that passes from an object to your eyes. As the light from an object passes a medium (air) with varying temperature gradients (hot air / cool air) combined with crosswinds the image will distort because the speed at which the light passes the medium will change and refract.
Popular examples would be a mirage and twinkling stars. Although the light from stars is constant, because the atmosphere is very chaotic and varying in temperature, it appears as if the stars are twinkling, whereas an astronaut in space will not observe this phenomenon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomica…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage
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It is a mirage as it “appears” to be something it is not. Here is a link of a photo which shows what you are asking about.