Re: The Lunar Paradox

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 02:29:55 GMT, "Craig Franck"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> in comp.ai.philosophy wrote:

>"Lester Zick" wrote
>
>> "Craig Franck" in comp.ai.philosophy wrote:
>
>> >Take a quarter and hold it at arms length and then move it halfway
>> >toward you while focusing on some background object (you will
>> >probably have to close one eye to get both the quarter and back-
>> >ground in focus). The quarter doubles in size in relation to the
>> >background. This is what happens in the lunar illusion, only with
>> >the moon instead of the quarter.
>>
>> But why wouldn't one expect the size of the quarter to double? That
>> doesn't strike me as an illusion.
>
>True, but when the moon does it, it does strike you as an
>illusion. My point was the illusion is caused  by the moon
>being place at the same distance from you as objects near
>the horizon.
>
There may be some truth to this. But certainly the moon cannot be
placed by the mind in illusional terms anywhere near the terrestrial
horizon or it would appear huge.


Regards - Lester