2013-05-06 11:42![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldisciplineQ: 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!)
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that said, if we could train our eyes to do that on command, it would be keen when the moon is overhead - we've got some kind of magnifying software going on there.
don't even bother with a ruler. the fingernail on your pinky finger, at arms length, is also about 1/2 degree or arc... more than sufficient to cover moon or sun, but not the larger object in the night sky, which is 1.5 degrees of arc
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