Check Your Blind Spot

Try this little experiment I demonstrated to the Noisykids this evening. We got to talking about how the eye works, and since I am never one to let ignorance get in the way of a long-winded lecture, I launched into a brief discussion of the workings of the human eye. Truly a wonderful piece of God's creation.

There is a spot on the back of the eye(the retina) where the optic nerve(which transmits the 'signal' from the eye to the brain) comes out, and there are no cells, or sensors there to sense the image that is projected onto that part of the retina. This area is known as the 'blind spot,' because there is no image in this area. Of course we are not aware of it under most conditions, because our brain does a good job of filling in the picture. It often will use information received from the other eye to cover it over, but it can be revealed using a simple experiment. Children, get your parent's permission before proceeding.

Here is a way to discover your own blind spot.

Look at the LEFT picture of Mr. Moose.

Cover your LEFT eye.

Get close to the computer screen and CONCENTRATE on Mr. Moose's head.

You look really ridiculous.

Seriously, keep your eye on the LEFT Mr. Moose. You can see the RIGHT Mr. Moose out of the corner of your eye, right? DON'T LOOK AT HIM!

Keeping your eye on the LEFT Moose, slowly back your head away from the screen. At about 12 to 18 inches away, as when I was publishing this, the RIGHT HEAD OF MR. MOOSE WILL DISAPPEAR. This is your blind spot. As you pull away more, the Moose head will reappear, as it is no longer projected on the blind spot.

Do the same thing with your right eye - just do the right side instead of the left side.

I hope you enjoy this bit of fun anatomy lessons. The next question I fielded was about stomach stapling, so I will refrain from discussing it on this blog. I was trying to do this experiment with pictures of ducks, but I couldn't get the position right.

Don't tell Mr. Moose I used his picture twice - folks at the Gift Shop have been overcome with greed, and he might charge me.

dadwithnoisykids