Questions tagged [perception]
The perception tag has no usage guidance.
169
questions
0
votes
0answers
40 views
Why don't we see/feel charged particles, penetrating our brains/retina?
If we see tracks in bubble or Wilson chamber, it means that particles are everywhere and can leave tracks in gases and liquids. They can also penetrate concrete of the building levels in the lab. So ...
-3
votes
1answer
59 views
Could brain “entanglement” explain the double slit experiment? [on hold]
I know I should abandon trying to figure out quantum experiments and simply accept the various interpretations in the physics books but please bare with me and explain why my latest idea is wrong.
I ...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
Could this work as a way to make 2D appear 3D?
So there is an effect where if you close one eye while watching a 2D movie, it appears slightly more 3D. This being because your depth perception no longer has the cue from two eyes.
(As an ...
0
votes
1answer
34 views
On seeing and especially in the dark
Our retina detects the change in the electromagnetic field due to the jiggling of the atoms surrounding us as I understand the seeing process. In the total absence of a light "source", however, why ...
4
votes
1answer
47 views
Astronauts in spacecraft, they have to circle the earth many times a day, do they also have the illusion of the moon?
Astronauts in spacecraft, they have to circle the earth many times a day, do they also have the illusion of the moon? I don't think they have, because according to the theory, the illusion of the moon ...
0
votes
0answers
37 views
Why does the wind close doors?
Assume you have two rooms, both with holes in the wall (more commonly known as open windows), which connect each room to the exterior. The two rooms are connected, but the connection can be closed by ...
0
votes
0answers
45 views
How to explain this thumb experiment?
Close your thumb to your eyes and align your eyes, thumb and moon. Then focus your eyes on your thumb and watch the moon behind your thumb. You will find that the moon becomes small! Remove your thumb ...
10
votes
5answers
5k views
Why don't humans perceive sound waves as twice the frequency they are?
I was reading about how at how acoustic beats work.
If we combine two waves with frequencies $f_1$ and $f_2$ and unit amplitude, their combination is
$$
\begin{align}
A
&= \cos\left(2\pi f_1x\...
8
votes
2answers
169 views
Why does the additive color model use red, green and blue instead of yellow, green and violet?
Long cone cells in the human eye are most sensitive to 570-nm wavelengths which are more like spectral "yellow" than spectral "red" and short cone cells are more to 440-nm wavelengths which are more ...
1
vote
0answers
29 views
Red and orange lights appear to be blinking [closed]
Why does the red and orange lights appear to be "blinking" and the blue and green lights appear to be still? The lights on this hula hoop are always stagnant, and in every picture this exact same ...
0
votes
2answers
54 views
Perception of time [duplicate]
A video I came across in youtube recently had mentioned how Einstein perceived time. It said he thought of all moments, the present, past and future to exist together and how it is not like one ...
3
votes
3answers
804 views
Why do we perceive time?
Since everything (at least what we observe) is travelling through the time in the same direction and speed why do we even perceive the time? Of course, there is the time dilatation, but it is ...
0
votes
0answers
22 views
Visualizing higher dimension [duplicate]
Why can't we visualize Higher dimensions greater than 3? Is it just because the dimensions doesn't exist (Certainly I know that space-time is four dimensional) or any other physical reasons.
1
vote
3answers
114 views
What had Feynman meant when he told nobody understands Quantum mechanics? What do we mean by understanding Quantum mechanics?
What had Feynman meant when he told nobody understands Quantum mechanics?
What do we mean by understanding Quantum mechanics?
0
votes
2answers
65 views
Why do we see things upside-down when we’re upside-down but not a camera?
If I do a handstand, everything looks upside down (which is originally what we see if we’re upright but the brain switches this). I assume this is because the change in how light rays enter our eye.
...
1
vote
3answers
76 views
Virtual images - Work of a brain or work of a lens?
I am just a high school student trying to self study, so please excuse me if this question sounds silly to you.
Many people tell me that virtual images are formed when two rays that are diverging ...
4
votes
2answers
193 views
Human perception of temperature
I had the following thought experiment recently: Suppose we have a vibrating plate for which we can tune the amplitude and frequency of vibration, and imagine we hold a finger against the plate. For ...
0
votes
0answers
31 views
The rise of BCI
If EEG and MEG are measuring different aspects of neural oscillations, why can't we measure the combined signals as a whole, when we are doing the same for higher frequencies?
Why did the us navy ...
2
votes
1answer
197 views
Why hot soup is tastier than cold soup? [closed]
My physics teacher recently asked me this question. Can anyone answer the question?
-1
votes
1answer
95 views
What is this optical illusion in which airplane propellers appear to rotate backwards? How is it explained? [duplicate]
This airplane's propellers are both rotating anti-clockwise. But as you see, they are seem like rotating clockwise seen from front (nose) side. This phenomenon is known as optical illusion.
My ...
0
votes
1answer
80 views
Does intuition really matter in the beginning of any new physics course? [closed]
Encountering some new courses like quantum mechanics, theoretical solid state physics and some other courses made me feel dumber than I ever felt.
Basically, I'm that kind of students who hate to ...
0
votes
1answer
30 views
Feeling sound; frequency and volume
How loud and "low" must a sound be in order for one to feel some physical sensation in response? I've read that below certain frequencies humans can be expected to "feel" sounds in their chests, and I ...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
How do we hear harmonics and how does it affect audio fidelity?
First and foremost, do we hear a sound wave as a sum of all the individual harmonics, at the fundamental frequency, or do we hear all the associated harmonics above the fundamental frequency and ...
0
votes
1answer
546 views
Why don't we see inverted image while wearing spectacles? [closed]
We know that the lens in our eyes forms an inverted image on retina and brain reverses it to give the correct image. But when one wears specs the image would get reversed twice so we should see things ...
74
votes
5answers
7k views
Why can we distinguish different pitches in a chord but not different hues of light?
In music, when two or more pitches are played together at the same time, they form a chord. If each pitch has a corresponding wave frequency (a pure, or fundamental, tone), the pitches played together ...
2
votes
1answer
171 views
How does the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics relate to Consciousness? [closed]
According to the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, each quantum event causes the world to "branch" into a superposition of outcomes.
How come "my" consciousness only chooses one of ...
0
votes
2answers
190 views
Why does physics “make sense”? [closed]
I was wondering if anybody had an explanation for why physics makes so much sense to us humans. In physics, many concepts just seem to make sense to me, but I cannot explain why. You may say that this ...
1
vote
2answers
247 views
How many eyes are needed to see a four-dimensional world? [closed]
If a four-dimensional world were to exist, how many eyes would a creature minimally need to see it (in three dimensions)?
Three? Four?
(Bonus question: how should these eyes be spatially configured?)...
-2
votes
1answer
42 views
EM spectrum and sense of sight
If we cant see all the spectrum does this mean that maybe exist objects we cant perceive? or it just the colors we cant perceive?
-1
votes
2answers
60 views
Perception of curvature of human eye [closed]
How are human eyes able to detect the different curvatures of surface ? Basically how are the human eyes able to differentiate between a plane surface and a convex or a concave surface?
60
votes
6answers
9k views
How does light combine to make new colours?
In computer science, we reference colours using the RGB system and TVs have pixels which consist of groups of red, green and blue lines which turn on and off to create colours.
But how does this work?...
3
votes
2answers
434 views
Why might Roger Penrose argue that Godel's incompleteness theorem(s) suggest that consciousness is non-algorithmic? [closed]
This past March, when I called Penrose in Oxford, he explained that his interest in consciousness goes back to his discovery of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem while he was a graduate student at ...
0
votes
1answer
65 views
Why can't our cognitive sense or five senses sense or fathom hyper-dimensional spaces? [duplicate]
Why can't our cognitive sense or five senses sense hyper-dimensional spaces?
Is it because of the way our human body is built?
2
votes
1answer
131 views
Why do I see discrete images when moving an object in front of a screen? [closed]
I observed this while doing my homework. I have a habit of shaking my pen between my fingers vigorously while thinking something. My PC's screen is right in front of me (on my study table itself).
...
1
vote
2answers
117 views
Tiny blue and red paint close to each other result in black or magenta? [closed]
Now, if I draw two tiny spots with red and blue paint on paper and they are so close (but they do not cover each other) to each other that human eyes cannot identify there are two spots. To the color ...
1
vote
1answer
158 views
How is the subjective loudness of sound computed?
The intensity of a sound is a measure of the energy that the sound waves carries through space per unit time per unit area (since energy is conserved along the wave unless work is done on/by it and ...
2
votes
1answer
82 views
Why are the active noise cancellation headphones subjectively better in reducing “periodic” noise?
According to experience of mine and of my friends using active noise cancellation headphones, the technology is much more efficient in reducing "periodic" noise, such as humming of jet engine, fridge ...
0
votes
1answer
83 views
Why we see a static picture of the sea when we are traveling by plane?
This question may look stupid but it's something that came to my mind months ago when I was on a plane. When one looks through the window on a plane, there are light and dark parts of the ocean (it's ...
0
votes
0answers
38 views
How can we determine time flows in one direction? [duplicate]
Suppose that time could flow in either direction, forward or reverse, similar to a movie. How could our brain possibly record that time had moved backwards? Would there be any way to tell if time had ...
3
votes
1answer
606 views
Do we hear anything special when the beat frequency is in audible range, but the sounds producing the beats are not? [duplicate]
When the beat frequency is very low, we hear periodic maxima and minima.
Our ear cannot perceive a on-off like sound when its frequency is more than 10 Hz.
So, beat frequency in audible range will not ...
1
vote
0answers
59 views
What causes observed color differences in white LED's for near and far fields?
While running towards traffic early morning before sunrise I recently noticed that the new automobile LED (white) lights when viewed at a distance appear blueish, but when the light is viewed much ...
4
votes
1answer
243 views
Why do we experience a slice of time, but not a slice of space? [closed]
I (and every one I guess) perceive space as an extended region where things happen. In contrast, time is perceived as a lucky of slice. Also in space I can choose in which direction I want to move, ...
2
votes
1answer
97 views
Why doesn't the brain flip retinal image horizontally as well?
I was reading about the Camera Obscura and the physics of apertures, and I read that "The camera obscura produces a flipped (horizontally) image as well as an inverted (vertically) one."
I understand ...
0
votes
3answers
107 views
What is Fourth Dimension?
Before people get pissed at me for asking a question that has likely been asked more than a few times, I just want to know a simple answer, if first dimension is that an object exists, (collision) ...
1
vote
2answers
93 views
Defocusing the eye and computer monitors
Im not sure whether this is the right site to post this on, but here goes :
We are often told to relax our eyes when using computer/tv screens for extended periods of time. I often find that I forget ...
1
vote
2answers
155 views
How to define white color scientifically? [duplicate]
I'm sorry some of you may mark this question as duplicate, but
even though I searched over about this I couldn't get satisfacory answer.
Also I think this question is more related to biology, but I ...
8
votes
2answers
545 views
Why does the moon appear fairly flat to a naked eye?
When I look at the regular ball picture the "edges" appear somewhat darker. Here's a random image I just found on image search :)
Image source
and that's how I can tell it's "round". Or so I assume.
...
-5
votes
1answer
116 views
Is visible light really visible? [closed]
As we know, colors only exist in the brain. How can we see light if it has no color? Our eyes detect light, but seeing occurs in the visual cortex. Is visible light really visible?
1
vote
1answer
505 views
How can a loud sound's perceived pitch differ from its predicted value from only its frequency?
Sparknotes $\qquad $
Quora answer by Mr. Kennan Hye BS (Engineering), MEng. (Acoustics):
Pitch is sometimes defined as the fundamental frequency of a sound wave (i.e. generally, the lowest ...
0
votes
1answer
76 views
What limits the electromagnetic radiation we can see? wavelength or frequency?
Can we only see electromagnetic radiation that has certain range of frequencies and a certain range of wavelengths?
