I asked this one of Cecil a while ago, but it didn’t seem to take his fancy.
Can anyone explain to me WHY perspective IS? I don’t understand how objects can appear smaller with distance… I once asked this of a nuclear physicist of my aquaintance, and he furnished me with an answer I didn’t understand at all, though I nodded sagely as he was talking.
Can anyone help this simple antipodean to whom all you propodeans are just tiny, perspective-shrunk specks?
Grab a blank sheet of paper, on the far left side draw a stick figure. This is going to be our observer. Now draw two lines going out from his eyes, one line heading up and right at about 45 degrees, and the other heading down and right at about 45 degrees, this represents the observer’s field of vision, or what he can see when he looks in that direction. Now draw another stick figure one inch to the right of the observer. We’ll call this new stick figure ‘A.’ Then draw one more stick figure (make him the same size as figure A) all the way on the right hand side of the page. We’ll call this one figure B.
Notice that figure A takes up a larger portion of the cone (what your observer sees) than figure B does, even though they’re actually the same size. This is basically the same thing that happens in real life. Closer objects take up a larger portion of your field of vision than far objects do, making them seem larger even if they’re really not. I hope this makes sense…
[Father Ted]
“No, Dougal. This cow is small, that cow is far away.”
"Sorry Ted, would you run through that one more time.
[/Father Ted]