Mysterious Car Shifts Sideways: Unsolved Mystery?

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A peculiar incident is recounted where two individuals, while eating fish and chips, witness a car inexplicably shift sideways without sound or apparent cause. This leads to a discussion about the nature of the event, with some suggesting it could be a shared hallucination, known as folie à deux, where one person's perception influences another's. Others propose more scientific explanations, such as optical illusions caused by refraction through transparent objects. The credibility of science writer Jenny Randles, who documented the story, is debated, with some expressing skepticism about her conclusions. The conversation also touches on the possibility of supernatural explanations, including alien influences, while emphasizing the need for more concrete details to analyze the situation effectively. Overall, the discussion reflects a blend of skepticism, curiosity, and humor regarding the mysterious occurrence.
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Two people sat eating fish and chips in the open air...both see a car shift sideways. There was no way for it to have done so and it did not make a sound as it moved. One minute it was there...the next it shifted a foot or so sideways. Both people stopped mid chip and looked at each other for confirmation of what they saw. What happened?
 
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Did this happen to you? I assume that none of it did and youve just been making weird stuff up lately. If that did happen to you, then I need to get some of that acid off you and try it out for myself. It sounds like some good stuff.
 
l.o.l...nope it did not happen to me..I'm qouting science writer Jenny Randles and the story was thoroughly researched..any ideas anyone?
 
What exactly are you putting in the fish and chips.
 
Fish and Chips? Hmm, they were at the seaside. They were sat on a bench on a floating marina (or a boat).

GD is fegging weird these days.
 
brewnog said:
GD is fegging weird these days.

Is this the succesor to smegging?
 
jaynebeal said:
Two people sat eating fish and chips in the open air...both see a car shift sideways. There was no way for it to have done so and it did not make a sound as it moved. One minute it was there...the next it shifted a foot or so sideways. Both people stopped mid chip and looked at each other for confirmation of what they saw. What happened?
Just pointing out a typo: 'carp' is missing a p.
 
Being that it involved Fish and Chips, I vote for London Forces.

:rolleyes:
 
This is just the typical "selectively apply quantum world concepts to classical."

If you never looked at the car it probably moved and didn't.
 
  • #10
jaynebeal said:
I'm qouting science writer Jenny Randles and the story was thoroughly researched.
I wouldn't believe Jenny Randles if she told me 2 + 2 = 4.
 
  • #11
My Guess:
There were 2 people carrying a glass pane (or some other aparently transparent medium, such as a large tank of water), they walked past and between glances both seated persons looked at the car through two different mediums. Refraction caused a displacement of the image.

Calculate the required glass thickness, distance from source and target, and the length of the object from average foot speed to be sure.

Or you could try some alien mind-ray...
 
  • #12
3trQN said:
Or you could try some alien mind-ray...


Ahhhh! I knew the rest of us were missing something. Damn those alien mind-rays.
 
  • #13
Do you suppose you could link to a useful article?
 
  • #14
jaynebeal said:
Two people sat eating fish and chips in the open air...both see a car shift sideways. There was no way for it to have done so and it did not make a sound as it moved. One minute it was there...the next it shifted a foot or so sideways. Both people stopped mid chip and looked at each other for confirmation of what they saw. What happened?

As a neurologically minded person I would first suspect there was never any movement of the car, only some sort of shared hallucination. This happens in the phenomenon known as folie a deax. In practise the first to hallucinate cues the other somehow about the content of the hallucination which the latter then generates in their own mind, and later they edit the cue out of the story, and their memories, when relating the incident.
 
  • #15
jimmysnyder said:
I wouldn't believe Jenny Randles if she told me 2 + 2 = 4.

I attended a lecture given by her once about debunking some of the myths behind the MIB stories, she had researched the subject thoroughly and all her arguments against various likelihoods were rigorously analytical.

My favourite part of the lecture was a picture of a field with a young girl standing in it, the man had taken it some days earlier but when he had it processed there was a fireman hovering above the little girl. Which was odd as obviously there wasn't one there originally; tellingly though what you can see in the picture is the vapour trail of what looks like the exhaust from something, and coincidently there was a top secret missile test on that very day? And wouldn't you know the missile is obscured by the fireman? So what do you think happened :smile: I saw the photo in question and I have to say it was very odd, it really did look as if the fireman was standing there 40 ft above them, even the shadows were consistent.

Anyway she was excellent value for money and came across as very credible.

Mind you I've only ever read one of her books so maybe she's written some weird crackpottery too, although I always thought she was more of a skeptic?

What was the question again:smile:?

Oh yeah, probably just a wormhole or something mundane, sucked it in then spat it out.

Can never rule out halucination either, even among crowds it happens.
 
  • #16
Schrodinger's Dog said:
Mind you I've only ever read one of her books so maybe she's written some weird crackpottery too, although I always thought she was more of a skeptic?
I was too harsh. Although she seems too ready to believe the supernatural, she is nowhere near as bad as the worst of that kind. I'll take her word for it on 2 + 2.
 
  • #17
zoobyshoe said:
... later they edit the cue out of the story, and their memories, when relating the incident.
Yes. Kind of the way the description in the original post was edited to exclude any details that would help us analyze it. We are left with nothing but a story we are to either believe or disbelieve.
 

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