Amazing Facts

A swimming pool appears about 25% shallower than it really is — light from the bottom bends as it exits, raising the apparent floor.

Spearing fish from above is harder than it looks — they appear nearer the surface than where they actually swim.

Stand in waist-deep water — the parts of your legs underwater look stubbier because each underwater point is raised.

Place a coin behind a cup so it's just hidden by the rim. Pour water in and the coin pops into view — refraction shifts its image upward.

Slide a glass slab over a printed page and the letters appear lifted toward you by about a third of the slab's thickness.

Atmospheric layers with slightly different densities refract starlight in shifting ways — making stars shimmer.

The atmosphere refracts sunlight around the curve of the Earth — we see the Sun for several minutes before it physically rises.