Harrison WorldLAB Symposium

 
Topic: Optical Illusions
Group Members: Michael & Charlie
Question or Hypothesis guiding the project: How do optical illusions fool our senses?
 
Overview of the three required learning activities:
1.) Visit Scitreck and get info on optical illusions.
2.) Find 25 websites on the internet.
3.) Get a telescope and label and discuss the different parts of the telescope.
 
Findings (list):
1.) A refracting telescope uses an objective lens, and a convex lens to magnify objects.
2.) A reflecting telescope uses a primary mirror and forms a real image when light reflects off of one or more secondary mirrors.
3.) Every person with normal eyesight experiences "normal" optical illusions.
4.) Reflecting telescopes inable us to see further and more clearly than refracting telescopes.
5.) In a reflecting telescope, light from the viewed object passes through the telescope tube without being bent.
6.) In most reflecting telescopes, the primary mirror is quite wide to collect a large amount of light.
7.) A refracting telescope bends light rays, this image is viewed through a convex lens at the other end of the tube, to magnifies the image.
 
Conclusion: Was hypothesis proven correct, or incorrect - OR how was question answered: Optical illusions fool our senses because they make you focus on the background instead of the real image. It makes you see a completely different image than what is really there.
 
Questions raised for further study:
1.) Could we test out different optical illusions on people to see if the results would differ for different types of people, and then record all of the data.
2.) Does everybody see optical illusions the same way?
3.) When and where were the first optical illusions discovered, and by whom?