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Stripy close-up, but grey far away?

A lady was wearing a black and white striped cardigan, and from close up I could see the separate stripes clearly, but when she walked away and got to about 20 metres distance from me the colours seemed to fuse together and go grey.

I'm assuming this is because the gaps between the stripes became too small for my eyes to define them.

So is this an unrecognised evolutionary advantage (being able to watch television the way we do doesn't count) or simply a fault with our eyes?

Many thanks,

Lana
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  • Asked by Lana
  • on 2010-03-26 20:46:21
  • Member status
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Last edited on: 2010-03-29 16:45:53

Categories: Human Body.

Tags: Eyes, stripes, cardigan.

 

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 petethebloke says:

It's not a fault, it's just that the resolving power of your eyes is not sufficient to separate the stripes. There is a wealth of information on the subject here

http://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/1469.html

and in last week's New Scientist (27th March 2010).

Like all engineering projects, eye 'design' has been arrived at with compromises. Evolution has given you the eye that benefitted your ancestors most. A falcon's eye might resolve the stripes in the cardigan but cost the falcon in other ways. Evolution has also given you a brain that could invent binoculars.

 

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Tags: Eyes, stripes, cardigan.

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posted on 2010-03-31 12:47:39 | Report abuse

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