A persistant spatial illusion

Why do things appear smaller the further they are away from you? Does it have to with light or with the nature of space itself?

 

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I was going to ascribe that to a trait of light when I realized rays don't actually converge from objects at single points in space. Rather they diverge from objects and spread out into a larger image of those objects. BUT..with a lens convergence IS created with light. So does that suggest the illusion only exists in the shrinking angle of the light AFTER it has entered our eye lens and focused itself at a point on the back of our retina?

 

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No illusion? You mean objects really do shrink in size the farther away they are? I don't think so Einstein...

 

Its a general illusion of our perception. We consider our perception as the truth. 'Any mirror effect to this perception' is considered as 'illusion' in our perception.

But what is 'the real truth' of any object and how to know about it, i think it is beyond our perception.

 

Sure they do.

Consider the ends of this line:

_______________________

The light leaving each end diverges, but in the process some rays coming from the left end diverge to the right and some rays coming from the right end diverge to the left. thus rays from the right intercept or converge with rays from the left. If you pick some point above or below that line, you will find that a rays from the left end and right end converge there. In fact rays coming from all points of the line converge there.

We see objects by the light rays coming from them that converge at our eye.

 

It's a wonder we don't get burned by all these magically converging rays of light, particularly when coming from the sun. Hey, maybe this explains spontaneous human combustion!

 

You misunderstood what James said (and he did give you the correct answer). The angle between your eyeball and the borders of an object determines how big/small you perceive it as. There is no magic and no illusion. I think if you "see" a picture depicting this concept then you may understand it:

View attachment 6072

 

Except that rays of light don't converge they diverge. Why would one ray of light get thinner as it approached our eye?

 

:bugeye: You don't really expect people to take you seriously do you?

 

I honestly don't understand your question; however, the wording you used suggests that maybe the question is coming from a mis-undersanding about how the human eye and specifically its lens work. Here is an explanation:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/class/phscilab/image.html

Additionally, here is some general information about converging lenses:

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/u14l5da.cfm

 

That's what I thought. I already suggested that the converging rays are caused by the lens in our eye. Your first diagram gave the impression there was a converging ray of light BEFORE it hit our eye. That didn't seem right to me. Your second diagram gives a better picture of the actual situation. Tks..

 

Aha, I see where the confusion came from. The first diagram was an angle diagram only. It didn't reference light.

 

My mistake, I thought you were actually looking for an answer to a question rather than playing dumb. ( You are playing dumb aren't you?)

 

In a way I guess I am... I'm trying to get people to really think about science instead of reciting pat answers they learned from textbooks. In this case I'm merely questioning the application of abstractions like lines and geometrical angles to 3D space and light. It's a clean and simple map that SEEMS to encapsule our knowledge of these phenomena. But always remember, the map is NOT the territory.

 

Talking about persistent spatial illusions my avatar was created by a feedback loop with 3 angles of 'spin' and one mirror at an angle to the the view horizon/pure Poincare section. The screen capture is exactly what you see on screen and it is persistent.

 

Amazing. You know when you think about it 3D is merely an illusion too isn't it? Its a compromise the brain makes when trying to match the slightly offset images of both eyes. Wonder how the brain would "interpret" the world seen thru 3 eyes? 4 eyes? A hundred eyes?

 

Hi Magical Realist. It is actually a good indication to be wary about only seeing what you want to see when your mind interprets a 2D image as 3D. This is not really 3D as in the movies/TV because those are not 'persistent' images but are moving to produce the 3D effect.

I will change my avatar each day for 10 days at this time and make a comment in this thread about what had to be done to get each persistent spatial image.

(1) I call this one Winiverse and it has a low level of 'spin'.