- #1
mikenw
- 9
- 1
I hope someone here can explain this curious light effect!
Some background: I have a table with a laptop on it, and a chair sitting at this table that has a mesh back on it that has a pattern of ~2mm holes cut into black material in a regular pattern. I happened to notice one day that I could see the dotted pattern from a distance of about 7-8 ft, as I looked through the chair back without my glasses on with my more nearsighted right eye (-2.50 diopter). Everything begins to blur at about 15" without glasses with that eye.
The effect: I am trying to understand what is causing my eye to still be able to see (some relic of) a dotted light pattern from across the room (~ 8 ft +). I can still see a very clear pattern of multiple dots of light, as though my vision was okay at that distance. Anything else at that distance is just a big blur so how come the light passing through this mesh is still perceived by my nearsighted eye with a pattern? Is something happening to the light that is causing some kind of interference pattern that my eye can see? How is this pattern surviving the trip through my nearsighted eye, showing kind of detailed pattern where everything else is just a blur?
I have attached some photos of the view to try and explain what is going on, although through a camera I can't make it see what my eye is seeing (maybe if I had a better camera), alone with a sketch of the setup. I hope someone can explain this very curious effect.
As a side note, I have begun to examine other cases where there is some tiny pinhole sources of light that also seem to yield some sort of detailed "version" of the source as seen by my uncorrected eye. For example, I have noticed that if I look through trees with foliage where the sun is behind the tree, I can also perceive very small "rings" of light that appear at each pinhole source of light. Again, this is as seem through my nearsighted uncorrected eye (-2.50 diopters). Thanks for any thoughts, I also posted this question on physicshelpform.com and received a few answers but I am still confused as to how the eye can image detail of light sources when the lens of the eye is focusing ini front of the retina.
Some background: I have a table with a laptop on it, and a chair sitting at this table that has a mesh back on it that has a pattern of ~2mm holes cut into black material in a regular pattern. I happened to notice one day that I could see the dotted pattern from a distance of about 7-8 ft, as I looked through the chair back without my glasses on with my more nearsighted right eye (-2.50 diopter). Everything begins to blur at about 15" without glasses with that eye.
The effect: I am trying to understand what is causing my eye to still be able to see (some relic of) a dotted light pattern from across the room (~ 8 ft +). I can still see a very clear pattern of multiple dots of light, as though my vision was okay at that distance. Anything else at that distance is just a big blur so how come the light passing through this mesh is still perceived by my nearsighted eye with a pattern? Is something happening to the light that is causing some kind of interference pattern that my eye can see? How is this pattern surviving the trip through my nearsighted eye, showing kind of detailed pattern where everything else is just a blur?
I have attached some photos of the view to try and explain what is going on, although through a camera I can't make it see what my eye is seeing (maybe if I had a better camera), alone with a sketch of the setup. I hope someone can explain this very curious effect.
As a side note, I have begun to examine other cases where there is some tiny pinhole sources of light that also seem to yield some sort of detailed "version" of the source as seen by my uncorrected eye. For example, I have noticed that if I look through trees with foliage where the sun is behind the tree, I can also perceive very small "rings" of light that appear at each pinhole source of light. Again, this is as seem through my nearsighted uncorrected eye (-2.50 diopters). Thanks for any thoughts, I also posted this question on physicshelpform.com and received a few answers but I am still confused as to how the eye can image detail of light sources when the lens of the eye is focusing ini front of the retina.