How do we

see objects?
The Eye and the Brain

• Stare at the centre of the rotating spiral for

about 20 seconds, then look at your
teacher
• The Spiral Illusion
• The eye and the brain work together
• The after effect is caused by the “fatigue” of
the neurons in the brain encoding motion in
one direction.

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Understanding Sight

• Understanding sight involves understanding

light and the “Eye-Brain”
• Meet our “Eye-Brain” – we will use these
often as observers in diagrams in this unit

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Understanding Sight

• We don’t see light that does not enter our

eyes

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Understanding Sight

• The tip of the candle flame emits light in all

directions
• But we only see the light that enters our Eye-
Brain

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Understanding Sight

• We don’t see light directed away from our

eyes unless it is reflected into our “Eye-Brain”
by something

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Understanding Sight

• On diagrams in this unit, we will tend to

ignore all light that does not enter our Eye-
Brains

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Light Rays

• The path light takes is called a ray

• Diagrams that show how light moves from
the object to the eye are called ray diagrams
• The use of light rays to determine the path of
light when it strikes an object is called
geometric optics

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Light Rays

Can you see the Eye-Brain’s shoes?

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Light Rays

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Light Rays

• Light travels in straight lines

• Since no ray of light can go straight from the
Eye-Brain’s feet into your eyes, you can’t see
them.

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Ray Diagrams

• Luminous objects emit light rays in all

directions.

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Ray Diagrams

• Non-luminous objects scatter the light rays

from luminous objects in all directions.

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Ray Diagrams

• All objects produce or scatter the light rays

from luminous objects in all directions.
• This diagram only shows light rays from the
top and bottom of the objects.

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Ray Diagrams

• In addition, rays illuminating non-luminous

objects are not shown

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Ray Diagrams

• To make things even

simpler, we
sometimes only show
the rays coming from
the top of the object.
• We only show the
light rays that enter
the observer’s eye

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Reflection & Absorption

• Reflection is the process in which light

“bounces off” the surface of an object and
travels in another direction

• Absorption occurs when something, such as

black print, absorbs light and converts into
heat

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Reflection & Absorption

• The black letter “E” appears black because the

ink absorbs all of the light that hits it
• No light reaches your eyes from the printed
“E”

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Transmission

• The process in which light travels through an

object (medium) is known as transmission

• There are three types of media: transparent,

opaque, and translucent

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Transparent Medium

• A transparent medium allows nearly all the

rays to pass straight through unaltered
• Air is a transparent medium

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Opaque Medium

• An opaque medium absorbs or scatters all

the rays
• A textbook is an opaque medium

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Translucent Medium

• A translucent medium transmits and

scatters the rays
• The medium indicates whether it is being
illuminated but the object cannot be clearly
seen
• Wax paper is a translucent medium

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Translucent Medium

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How Does our Brain know How BIG things are??

The apparent Size of the object depends on the angle

between rays coming from the top and bottom of the
object.

Large objects have a large angle between the rays.

Angles also tell our brain about DISTANCE…

Objects that are farther away have a small angle between

rays coming from the top and bottom.
This makes them appear small to the Eye-Brain

Objects that are close have a large angle between the rays,
and the object appears larger.