Why do manuals roll backwards?

Why does a car with a manual trasmission roll backwards when you disengage the clutch at a standstill?

When you're on a hill, gravity pulls you down. That not a proper scientific explanation or anything, but I think you get the idea.

automatics will do it too, if you do the same to them as the manuals.... pop them into neutral. Automatics dont do it in drive or park because the clutches in the tranny keep it from rolling backwards.

But my car does it when Im not on a hill....even when Im facing slightly downhill, the car rolls backwards slowly or doesnt roll at all.

when the clutch is disengaged (pressed in), the engine is separated from the transmission and thus your engine does work but no torque is applied to the wheels. thus the only movement can occur from outside sources (gravity on an incline, someone pushing your car etc). even if you're on flat ground or an appeared slightly forward incline you're probably not; there are rarely naturally occuring perfectly flat surfaces and most contain some degree of inclination, regardless of direction.

Heres a perfect example of a place that looks downhill but is really uphill. The spot right in front of the camera is actually downhill of the place farthest away. By the way, this place actually looks like this, it isnt edited at all.
http://web.ecomplanet.com/JONE4883/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/JONE4883CustomImage0289029.jpg

Originally posted by YellowMaranello
Heres a perfect example of a place that looks downhill but is really uphill. The spot right in front of the camera is actually downhill of the place farthest away. By the way, this place actually looks like this, it isnt edited at all.
http://web.ecomplanet.com/JONE4883/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/JONE4883CustomImage0289029.jpg
ha. ha. ha. i was merely referencing to the fact that the only cause of the cars movement had to be outside forces, and often times when driving my dads miata which is a 6-speed a seemingly flat surface rolls the vehicle backwards or forwards, and that his eye probably decieved him when he was look at the road ahead of him.

that's basically the concept of the "Magnetic Hills"... if u've been to one of them... u'll understand... from your point of view... the car seems to be rolling uphill in reverse automatically.... but really... its downhill...

Thats exactly what that is. I've been to that one before because its like 2 hours away from where I live. We got pulled over by some police while we were testing its "magnetic"ness.:bloated:

That picture looks like you swirled it using photoshop, lookit those trees in the middle :lol2: . If not, then thats some interesting scenery.