Amazing Human Eye (not sure where else to put this)

[Phill05]

My wife asked me this morning why the guy on the tv said "I looked at it with my naked eye" she asked what other way is there to look at something, by the way my wife is totally blind

I could not think of an answer.

Phill

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you look at the Parthenon it appears that the upright columns are all vertical and parallel, in fact they were deliberately made splaying out slightly so that the eye perceived them to be vertical. Likewise the plinth it stands on is not actually straight, but appears so. Very clever.

Some years ago I had to fix some curtain rails and decorations over adjacent three foot + square windows. Over the top there were three (supposedly) decorative 12" - 15" round velvet rosettes, one at either side and one in the middle. I asked the "interior designer" how much higher she wanted the middle one than the two end ones, she replied she wanted them dead level. I fixed them dead level. It looks as if the middle one is lower, she said. Yes, I said, that's why I asked how much higher you wanted the middle one. Optical illusions are strange - shift lenses are used on cameras for this reason.

 

[Jacob]

My wife asked me this morning why the guy on the tv said "I looked at it with my naked eye" she asked what other way is there to look at something, by the way my wife is totally blind

I could not think of an answer.

Phill

Binoculars, specs, telescopes, magnifying glasses....?

 

[Pabs]

My wife asked me this morning why the guy on the tv said "I looked at it with my naked eye" she asked what other way is there to look at something, by the way my wife is totally blind

I could not think of an answer.

Phill

does that mean to see something with just you eyes?

Binoculars, specs, telescopes, magnifying glasses....?

aye naked eye means just that - unaided. I.e you can see Venus with the naked eye

 

[Phill05]

does that mean to see something with just you eyes?

aye naked eye means just that - unaided. I.e you can see Venus with the naked eye

Just asked her she says Why Naked, if you say "look through a magnifier" "look through a telescope" you know what it means but why with just your eyes "Naked"

 

[J-G]

Optical illusions are strange - shift lenses are used on cameras for this reason.

I can see what you are suggesting Phil but 'Shift Lenses' - by which I have to assume you mean the front Lens Panel on a 'Technical' Camera (usually 'plate' Cameras but there are Roll film types as well (I used to own a Linhof Technica) ) which is used to maintain a parallel image when photographing tall buildings.

The brain can cope with the illusion that the top is narower than the base but a camera lens can't - it has to follow the laws of physics!

 

[johnbs]

I've become increasingly disillusioned with the performance of eye-brain in any sort of metrological task. The system is primarily designed for keeping you safe and rapid interpretation of the most likely scene. Google Constant Colour for instance. And these particular "images" I still find unbelievable....

 

[Pabs]

Just asked her she says Why Naked, if you say "look through a magnifier" "look through a telescope" you know what it means but why with just your eyes "Naked"

because naked means 'to lay bare' as in no lenses or artiicial what not to aid; more a way of quantifying something in crude terms;

I remember vividly being on a caravan holiday one whitson when I was 6 or so; daddy pabs said 'look at that hawk' and I obediently said 'oh wow' but in reality couldn't see anything. In class I was labelled as the fidgetter and the attention deficit kid but in reality I just couldnt see the blackboard (was still chalk in my days).

then when I got specs it was like a whole new world opened up.

So 'naked eye' makes some assumptions.

I've become increasingly disillusioned with the performance of eye-brain in any sort of metrological task. The system is primarily designed for keeping you safe and rapid interpretation of the most likely scene. Google Constant Colour for instance. And these particular "images" I still find unbelievable....

"Google Constant Colour for instance." - what do you mean?

Also are metrologists are kind of like actuaries - chasing the nth' degree of 'true? I've done a forestskills woodworking class and learnt the other way of seeing things, accepting the twist and knots.

 

[stuart little]

If you look at the Parthenon it appears that the upright columns are all vertical and parallel, in fact they were deliberately made splaying out slightly so that the eye perceived them to be vertical. Likewise the plinth it stands on is not actually straight, but appears so. Very clever.

Very interesting. I guess some ancient Greek foresaw that one day someone would invent the camera!

 

[Jacob]

If you look at the Parthenon it appears that the upright columns are all vertical and parallel, in fact they were deliberately made splaying out slightly so that the eye perceived them to be vertical. Likewise the plinth it stands on is not actually straight, but appears so. Very clever.

I tend to be sceptical about these things. The golden ratio is another.
People are always desperately seeking occult information and magic solutions - just think of modern sharpening!

 

[J-G]

If you look at the Parthenon it appears that the upright columns are all vertical and parallel, in fact they were deliberately made splaying out slightly so that the eye perceived them to be vertical. Likewise the plinth it stands on is not actually straight, but appears so. Very clever.

I don't think that is quite correct - it's well known that the columns are 'Barrel shaped' which fools the eye/brain into seeing them as parallel but I haven't previously heard that that are also 'splayed'.

 

[J-G]

I tend to be sceptical about these things. The golden ratio is another.
People are always desperately seeking occult information and magic solutions - just think of modern sharpening!

Very typical of the narrow mind that you constantly exhibit! (ie. I didn't think of that so it must be a myth) - the Golden Ratio has dominated 'design' for millenia and the 'barrel shaped' Greek columns are very well known & documented/

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Oh, Lordy. Popcorn time.

 

[Jacob]

Very typical of the narrow mind that you constantly exhibit! (ie. I didn't think of that so it must be a myth) - the Golden Ratio has dominated 'design' for millenia

In theory but not in practice. I didn't say it was myth - it was a theory and was practiced, but unconvincingly. It has never "dominated" design but crops up a lot in design theory.

and the 'barrel shaped' Greek columns are very well known & documented/

I know. It's called "Entasis".
It gets lots of attention but often the claims are vague or contradictory e.g. the well known columns at Paestum obviously bulge but there's no way this could be described as a "correction" of an optical effect. Quite the opposite it's the deliberate and unmistakable incorporation of the effect of a bulge, for reasons best known to the architect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entasis#/media/File:paestumBasilika.jpg
Occult knowledge tends to come out into the open if it has any substance. If uncertain it can remain the subject of idle speculation indefinitely, as you can see here, with a wide collection of alternative theories:
Entasis - Wikipedia
It's very narrow minded to take these theories and guesses for granted!

 

[Tanglefoot20]

Sorry to mention the dreaded word sharpening but one of the main themes of the modern trend is the sheer impossibility of judging 30º by eye!
I think the basic angles; 90, 45, 30, are quite easy to hit reasonably closely.

 

[Pabs]

what have I stumbled upon! domestic spatter over obloid skewiff ancient pillars?

lol. can't wait to get to know you all.

love the community!