Like the title says: when you see “heat rising” (the wavy/blurry area above a heat source), what are you actually seeing?
Bonus question: How does that cast a shadow? I noticed when I was opening my air fryer, I could see the shadow of the heat rising but, looking at the hot basket itself, couldn’t see it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction#Atmospheric
Hot air is less dense than cold air, and the speed of light through a fluid will change with the fluid’s density. Heat shimmers are a swirling mass of air at different temperatures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection#Natural_convection
Light that would have hit the shadowed region instead got sent in a different direction.
Thanks!
TIL the term for those.