The Science of the Eye

Because I have a passion for the brain and its mechanics, I was inspired to make a presentation about the eye, relating it to what we have just studied in physics class, and also providing some extra information.  Hopefully, this presentation is appealing to the eye, after all, it should be flattered.

The Science of the Eye

The Eye on Prezi

Contrived: Sierpinski's Reflection

            In order to produce this image, I stacked four silver Christmas ornaments on top of one another, in the form of a pyramid.  I then shone a white light through one of the gaps in the structure, which resulted in the fractal that can be seen within the ornaments, known as Sierpinski’s Triangle.  Because of the opaque and shiny surfaces, the light that I shone passed through the aperture; it is reflected back in varying colors, as seen here where the colors white, gold, and black exist harmoniously.  The gold was the result of light reflecting off of my kitchen counter, which has a sepia tone with occasional flecks of gold.  The black was due to the areas where the light didn’t reach, and serves as a good outline for the fractal.  Reflection occurs when the electrons within an object vibrate at a different frequency than that of an incoming ray of light.  The ray of light causes the electrons to vibrate briefly and with large amplitudes, which then release the energy in the form of another ray.  With this complex arrangement of spherical convex mirrors, light was bouncing to and fro, creating an infinitesimally intricate pattern.  As you can see, the fractal is formed of an infinite number of triangles, which due to the constant reflection of the four mirrors, is possible to recreate.  This image perfectly demonstrates the beauty of math blossoming in the land of physics.

If you'd like to see another picture of Sierpinski's Triangle, click here

Attributions:
I would like to mention that my inspiration came from 7th grade math and 9th grade geometry class!

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/light/U12l2c.cfm

http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~matt/courses/cs563/talks/cbyrd/s.gif