I saw the Balaton video and the laser was most certainly not pointed down ... as this blog claims. They took measurements every few dozen yards and the beam for the first three measurements was within one centimeter ... which proved that the laser was level with the water. Unless the video was hoaxed (which you can't rule out), what I saw ... if true ... was extremely convincing.
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You did not read far enough in the metabunk forum. A few posts accused them of not having a level laser. BTW a few dozen meters with one centimeter's error (or even one millimeter!) would not ensure a level instrument for projection across several kilometers. They would have needed to establish less than one millimeter variation over 300 meters, by checking in opposite directions, before they would have reasonable assurance of an adequately level laser. Then their accuracy would have been within 3 millimeters in one kilometer or 6 in two or 9 millimeters in three kilometers.
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Be that as it may, the ultimate accusation on the metabunk site is in regards to the distortion that occurs over such surfaces as bodies of water, especially when there is an inversion layer (warm air on top of cold air). The cold air is commonly found lying over the surface of water, and a warm layer of air is not infrequently found above the cold layer. They explain that differences in air density causes the bending of light, just as it does when a laser is pointed into the surface of water at an angle. Viewed from the side, one can see that the laser striking the surface of water at a low angle (like a flashlight held in a boy's hand pointed out over a lake) when it penetrates the surface of the water the laser bends downward since the water is of a greater density than the air. If you have ever tried poking a long, straight stick or fiberglass pole into the water (like a swimming pool cleaning net) you see the pole appear to bend upwards from above the water looking down the length of the pole -- but the pole is not bending, the light is doing the bending. Or, if you attempt to shoot a fish with a bow and arrow, you have to aim much LOWER than the fish for your arrow to hit the target since the arrow will continue to fly through the water in a straight line but from the position of the bow the arrow will appear to bend upward in its flight under water, since the light coming off the fish bends when it hits the water's surface at an angle.
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Consequently, over the surface of water, where this condition is very likely to occur, objects that are far away over the water's surface and very low down and close to it, might appear to be higher up than they really are, due to the higher density of air that's near the surface of water, in part due to humidity increase and in part due to lower temperature. They post several photographs that demonstrate this phenomenon, which they identify as "looming." Additionally, tall objects with identifiable features at various heights can be seen to appear compressed when viewed through a telescope, such that the parts of the object close to the water's surface will appear shorter in height than they do when photographed at close range without the telescope. For example, the rungs of a standing ladder which are equally spaced will appear closer together near the bottom of the ladder, and gradually further apart as one looks higher up on the ladder, until at some point, perhaps 30 feet high, the rungs all appear to be equally spaced. This gradual change is comparable to the logarithmic scale of a slide rule, but it only applies to the lowest parts of the image in question. At about one or two miles, for example, it applies to the lower 20 or 30 feet. Objects close to the water's surface appear distorted and compressed vertically.
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Extending this principle to the whole picture of what is being viewed, it becomes clear that since the light traveling close to the surface of the water but still through air, can be bending downward toward the water, it is possible that this bending can be close to, equal to or greater than the curvature of the surface of the water. They provide figures on the site for what amount of bending light would be needed to equal the earth's curvature.
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Not to say this is conclusive, but only that the three different experiments shown (only one of which is the Balaton lake video - there are two more they refer to as well) were conducted by well-meaning people but they used inadequate methods. They only made one observation. They only did it at one time. They only did it over the same surface of water.
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They should have done several observations, on different days, at different times of year and different temperatures and humidity; they should have done some laser shots over dry land and in opposite directions, to demonstrate and discover what the consequence of having a laser slightly out of level would be. They are also accused of having a target on the boat that has a diffusely reflective surface such that the place the laser hits the panel on the boat is clearly seen from shore where the laser is coming from (in a way like a traffic sign on the highway has diffusely reflective paint which shines your headlights right back at you from any direction whatsoever). They are accused of then perhaps moving the laser down to meet the boat's target so they could get a favorable reading. I'm not making this accusation, I'm just reporting what the metabunk thread says.
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My question was, since they were riding in a small boat on the surface of water with a laser beam shining on their white board, why was the laser beam so steady on the board when you know that small boats on the water are bobbing up and down, right and left, fore and aft CONSTANTLY, and this cannot be controlled -- EVER. If it were real, that laser dot would have been all over the place,
never standing still. But they showed it standing still almost all the time, with very little movement, if any.
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Also, on the metabunk site they refer to a well-known laser in Greenwich, England, which is a beacon for scientific use, and it shines out into the air above the land for all to see. It is observed some kilometers away where it comes close to striking a tall building, where they say it is actually two inches away from the building, nonetheless, there is a visible glow all around the beam which makes a splash of ambient light spilling across the perpendicular side of the tall building. The center of this glow is quite bright and would appear to be the laser itself, but perhaps the resolution of the image is wanting. In any case, there was no similar ambient glow in the Balaton boat's white panel or screen. This makes me wonder why the laser appeared therefore to be much closer to the boat than what they said it was. The laser in England is said to be shining through some dust clouds, the particles of which scatter the laser light by the time it reaches the tall building. But there are particles of moisture lying near the surface of water, so wouldn't that have the same effect at Balaton?
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