this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Science Memes

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Hummingbird feet (mander.xyz)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact: next time you see the moon in the day, study the angle of the sunlight hitting it — it doesn't appear to line up with the sun. This is a perspective trick based on the fact the sun is way further away than the moon yet we perceive them the same distance. And no I cannot intuitively grasp this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It has to do with apparent size of the sun and moon. The sun is 400 times wider than the moon and coincidentally 400 times further away, so they look the same size. With no other reference points as to how big each object is, we perceive them to be the same distance.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That bit I can at least fully comprehend. It's the sunlight angle thing I can't wrap my head around.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

You want to know about space, you ask NASA