Hold your hands outstretched in front of you, one twiceas

Chapter 4, Problem 32

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Hold your hands outstretched in front of you, one twiceas far from your eyes as the other, and make a casual judgmentas to which hand looks bigger. Most people see themto be about the same size, while many see the nearer handas slightly bigger. Almost no one, upon casual inspection, sees the nearer hand as four times as big. But, by the inversesquarelaw, the nearer hand should appear to be twice as talland twice as wide and therefore seem to occupy four times asmuch of your visual field as the farther hand. Your belief thatyour hands are the same size is so strong that you likely overrulethis visual information. Now, if you overlap your handsslightly and view them with one eye closed, youll see the nearerhand as clearly bigger. This raises an interesting question:What other illusions do you have that are not so easily checked?

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