Sunday, January 31, 2016

Why does Sun/Moon appear bigger at the horizon?

You might have seen some pictures like below one depicting huge moon/sun at the horizon. Ever wondered why does it appear so big?





In reality, their size remains the same. The effect is caused by an optical illusion popularly known as Ebbinghaus illusion. 

The illusion is better explained with the below figure. 


Those two circles in the middle are of the same size, but the second one seems bigger, because the things around it are smaller.

The moon/sun would appear bigger near the horizon because there are things way off in the distance that appear very small next to the moon, creating the Ebbinghaus illusion.



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