Dani Esterline

Ms.Zuber

Honors Biology

6 October, 2012

Emmerts Law and the Moon Illusion

Introduction

Science is developed on the basis of various theories, which are first tested and then surprising phenomenons are observed. Many a times, these phenomenons dazzle the human beings with the complex and intricate hidden truths that lie behind them. In this paper, focus will be kept on the phenomenon of perception or different kinds of illusions. The odd thing about illusions is that they are not based on scientific explanations and are false in reality. Though, they look so, true that they are sometimes hard to be proven wrong. Illusions are a phenomena in which the actual thing is represented by eyes, brain, other senses, object and words in an perfidious way. Some errors occur because of the error in processing of signals.

Discussion

Emmert's Law

Emmert's Law was made by Emil Emmert (1844 - 1911), who first described the phenomena in 1881. He figured out that when someone focuses on one thing for a certain period of time, then the afterimage formed may vary depending on the distance it is projected on. With greater distance the afterimage can be seen increasing in size. Or in simpler words, the image of an object formed from a close distance is greater than the one formed from a greater distance. The effect can be easily generated by looking at a bright light for a short time or an object for a longer period of time then if the figure is projected to a farther distance than the image formed will increase in size (Calabi, 2012). However, this being an illusion has no empirical reality and in fact if the size is geometrically measured then it is seen that it is smaller than the real one. It might be thought that the image may be ...