A trick of perspective
jewel July 20th, 2008
Today is the 39th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy, posted about it today along with the left half of the picture above of Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the moon. There is a really neat trick of perspective in that picture (that many of the commenter’s noticed). When the picture is looked at right side up, the footprint looks raised and the surrounding ground more solid, while when turned upside down the footprint looks indented (like one would expect) and the surrounding ground looks softer. I just love stuff like this.
It is just a trick of the light. When the picture was taken the sun was lighting the area from the upper right and the shadows were harsh, giving the indentation’s the raised look. Just turn it 180 degrees, however and the brain suddenly can make sense of the picture.
The brain is, indeed, a terrible thing. It can easily play tricks on us and it does so with regularity. From paradoilia to deja vu to seeing something out of the corner of your eye only to turn and find nothing there. And, of course, tricks of perspective. Seeing isn’t necessarily believing. Not for me, anyway.
- science , skepticism
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