Depth Perception
A quick experiment demonstrating how our eyes work for depth perception.
Safety Notes
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What To Do
- Draw a small dot on a piece of paper and place it on the table.
- Sit in a chair around an arm's length away from the paper and close one eye (make sure you aren't seated too far away from the paper since you want to be able to reach it with your pencil or pen)
- Hold the pencil or pen straight out.
- Lower your arm slowly and try to touch the tip of the pencil/pen to the dot on the paper. How many tries did it take? How close were you on the first try?
- Repeat the experiment, this time closing their other eye. Is there a difference? How many tries did it take you to touch the dot with your pencil/pen?
- Lastly, repeat the experiment, this time keeping both eyes open. What happened? How many tries did it take you to touch the dot with your pencil/pen?
Discovery
Humans and other animals have two eyes for depth perception. This means that your eyes can see the world in 3-dimension and see the distance of an object! If you can't see an object with both your eyes at the same time, it is much harder for your brain to tell the distance between you and the object. Your brains needs to receive a picture from each eye to give you the real distance.
Depth perception is very important in our everyday lives- we need it to help us with many tasks, like catching a ball or seeing how fast a moving car is with us.
Guide:
What's Happening?
Humans and other animals have two eyes for depth perception. This means that your eyes can see the world in 3-dimension and see the distance of an object! If you can't see an object with both your eyes at the same time, it is much harder for your brain to tell the distance between you and the object. Your brains needs to receive a picture from each eye to give you the real distance.
Why Does it Matter?
Depth perception is very important in our everyday lives- we need it to help us with many tasks, like catching a ball or seeing how fast a moving car is with us.