Khan & Marquez 1

Nabiha Khan & Jennifer Marquez

Physics Period 2
Ms. Larson
April 3, 2014
How Exactly do we see Optical illusions?
Hello, my name is Nabiha Khan and my name is Jennifer Marquez, the question we
researched is, How do we see optical illusions. We chose this topic because not many people
know how optical illusions work. At first, we predicted that optical illusions are pursued by each
person's brain. Although, most people (mostly kids) might think that optical illusions are pieces
of art or possibly even magic. Conceptual models are important in science because they help us
see what we imagine in our minds. We use conceptual models because they are clear, shared,
okay external, and have analogs. Three types of analogs are structural, behavioral,and
functional and the models we built were all combinations of structural, behavioral, and
functional.
Powerpoint!!!!!!
The models we chose to build were models of the brain and the eye. The reason we
built those models was because the eye and the brain are the most important thing while
dealing with optical illusions. The human brain is split up into many lobes but the lobe we need
to absorb light and interpret an image is the occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is located in the
back of the brain and is used only for vision. The occipital lobe also receives the information
from the eye after it passes to the optic nerve which is located in the eye. The eye also has
many parts. For example, some of the important parts are the retina, lens, and the optic nerve.


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The retina for example is a sensitive layer of tissue in the back of the inner eye that transforms
the wavelength of the color into an electric signals and then sends them to the optic nerve. The
lens changes the focal distance of the eye causing the images of objects at varying distances to
form on the retina.
The most important thing to understand about how the eye absorbs light is, what is a
wave? A wave is a disturbance or vibration in space that transfers energy without matter and
light is a transverse wave. Our model shows an example of how our eyes absorb light to see an
image and interpret the same image in the occipital lobe. Light absorption is the process in
which a material in this case our eyes take in the light that is giving out by anything that
produces light. Our models explain this because we show how the eye takes or absorbs in the
light to produce the optical illusion in the brain. Optical illusions often involve different colors,
every color has a different amount of frequency. Violet has the highest amount of frequency
and a shorter wavelength while red has the lowest frequency and a longer wavelength. The
definition of frequency is the number of crests of a wave that move past a certain point often
measured in hertz.
In conclusion, optical illusions are caused by the way our brain takes in the information
then relates it to our past experiences and the environment around us. It could also be the
traits of your eyes or possibly the way humans look at the illusions that cause optical illusions
mess with everyone's brains using colors, patterns, shapes etc. After researching and building
our models we learned more about the anatomy of the brain and the eye also how we see and
the way the image reaches our brain. For example, we had no idea that the brain was split into
6 different main lobes and each of the lobes has its own function. We would say something that


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was a challenge when building our model was deciding what our theme would be and how we
were going to place everything. In the end our physical model was better than a mental model
because we have clearly established what is important to know about how the eye absorbs light
and how that process takes place. Also the physical model clearly allows anyone to inform
themselves on any information about function of the eye or brain.





















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Works Cited
"Darwin P-Optical illusion - Home Page."Darwin P-Optical illusion - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web.
27 Mar. 2014. <http://opticalillusions.koalawebsitedesign.c

"Eye." Pictures, Anatomy & Diagram. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/eye#3/16>.

"Retina: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National
Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/