No Photoshop, just a mirage: viral photo of floating ship, explained

This viral photo of a ship floating above the sea is not Photoshopped.   A science teacher explains how this is possible...

Transcript

00:30One of the things we want to keep in mind is that light travels in waves.

00:39So the ship is not making its own light.

00:42So what's happening is the light's coming from the sun, it's hitting the ship and it's

00:46reflecting towards our eyes.

00:48But what happens is, is you've got this layer of really cool, dense air that's right on

00:53the ocean, and above it you have warmer, less dense air.

01:23So, the Inferior Mirage is the classic one we think when we think of like a western movie

01:32or on a really, really hot summer day.

01:34You look at the road and you can see it kind of wavy.

01:37Or if you've seen movies where there's somebody walking in the desert and they see water.

01:41And what they're seeing is kind of the sky, the blue sky reflecting down.

01:53And this is where you'll see an almost like a mirror image of something.

02:11So like if you had a ship out on the ocean, you might see the ship in its regular position,

02:16but you might see another ship that's in the inverse above it.

02:39When you take a picture, it's capturing exactly what our eyes are seeing as well.

02:42So, it's just graphing the light that it sees standing where we are for the photograph.