Refraction is a basic rule of physics, and yet I think it may hold some secret power yet undiscovered by mankind. Take for example, the situation I found the other day. I was looking at the shaft of the pool-cleaner which was sticking out of the pool. The shaft went down, and where it met the water, appeared to suddenly bend as I have attempted to demonstrate in the following crude picture:

\
\ pole
|\_________ water
| \_
| \_ pole
| \
+---------- pool bottom

Now, this applies all rules of physics, so I thought nothing of this. I stared down into the pool at a leaf lying there. This was, my eye told me, in a direct line diagonally into the pool as such:

\
|___________
|\
| \
| \
+---o-------

So then I applied the principle of refraction to where this leaf was situated at the bottom of the pool, and decided that where my eye thought it saw the leaf, it was in fact further from the edge than my eye told me.

\
|\___________
|\ \_
| \ \_
| \ \
+---o---o----

None of this may come as any surprise to you, having witnessed similar sights yourself, until you take into account the X-factor. The area of the triangle of pool that cannot be seen caused by this refraction has disappeared!

\
|\___________
|\ \_
| \ X\_a
| c\ \
+---o---o----
b

So what has happened to that area of the pool marked X? Perhaps it disappears into a wormhole in the space/time continuum and winds up making up a jigsaw-like pool on a planet in a parallel dimension, perhaps the pool is, in reality, smaller than one thought, or perhaps it never existed in the first place.

Spooky

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