![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2013-05-06
Q: http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_579_25-mind-blowing-things-science-cant-explain_p21/#8
A: It's an optical illusion, as the perception is that the sky is shaped more like a contact lens than a half circle, making the horizon seem farther away than the higher portions of the sky, and thus, because the moon appears the same size in both places, we perceive it to be larger when it is low in the sky.
(Seriously, just hold up a ruler at arm's length the next time there's a full moon and measure it. SCIENCE!)
A: It's an optical illusion, as the perception is that the sky is shaped more like a contact lens than a half circle, making the horizon seem farther away than the higher portions of the sky, and thus, because the moon appears the same size in both places, we perceive it to be larger when it is low in the sky.
(Seriously, just hold up a ruler at arm's length the next time there's a full moon and measure it. SCIENCE!)