How come these two chinese girls have so small heads? Are they shrinked in some vodoo way? Probably not, but if you solve this, please comment and share your thoughts with me. I have no clue! This optical illusion picture was taken by Shoji Uchida, a very talented and interesting photographer whose pictures are showcased here.
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It is the defraction of light that makes their heads appear smaller. Look at a straw in a glass of water. Notice how the straw appears to be a different size under water than the straw above water.
What Angela said. :)
The refractive index of water is much different from the refractive index of water. A lens is created by light passing through materials with a different refractive index, and the water against the camera magnifies more than air against the camera.
Straw in a glass of water… Is the glass round? Then it is acting as a lens and the girls must be in a round tank also. Do fish look bigger in a rectangular fish tank?
Well, the above is only partially true ;)
So, the actual projection of a real picture onto a two-dimensional pane of a film (or a digital sensor like a CCD) is done through one or many lenses. Actually, the lenses of a camera are a combination of multiple lenses with even different material per lens to get certain attributes.
To keep this story short, each lens is engineered to project the “real world” onto two dimensions with a certain scale. Now, this gets actually accomplished by passing light rays emmitting from the original object (e.g. sun light that gets reflected from that object) through the lense onto the projection pane. When the light travels through the lens, it gets “diffracted”, i.e. “bend” in a certain way. The amount of “bending” or “refraction index” is determined by the material. However, this refraction index is not an absolute value but always relative to something.
For example, the average refraction index of light in glass is 1.5, but always relative to air at “standard conditions” (to explain that would really take too long ;).
And herein lies the solution to this picture: when the lense is submerged in water, the refraction index of its glass is not relative to air anymore, but relative to water. The refraction index of water (relative to air) is 1.33. When light travels through water into the lense, the resulting relative refraction index is actually 1.5/1.33 = 1.13. This is a much smaller value, which means the lens is much “weaker”. In this case, the lense was probably slightly “magnifying” and since submerging it into water made it weaker, the magnification was less – et voila, here you have your smaller heads.
Guess, that was still a bit long, but Physics is just not easy.
it doesn’t matter about shape. Try it in a bath with your fingers at different angles half in the water, its cool.
… but did you all keep in mind, that the photographer’s outside the tank!?!?
Any scuba diver knows that the mask magnifies underwater images beacause of the different light defraction index of water and the air inside the mask. Thats why we love to dive naked :-)
Those who live in San Diego can verify this effect in the dolphins pool on Sea World. The distance seems to be greater above the surface than in the side window.
i think somehow the water magnifies the rest of their bodies so their heads look small
nice one…… well, that is the same trick when a pencil is put to a glass of water……
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Dave Goodman on 9:02 PM
What Angela said. :)
The refractive index of water is much different from the refractive index of water. A lens is created by light passing through materials with a different refractive index, and the water against the camera magnifies more than air against the camera.
How is water different?
The refractive index of water is much different from the refractive index of water.
Um, it’s so obvious that their heads aren’t small, it’s just that their bodies are huge!
they just have small brains that’s why they’re heads are that small.. hihih..
Angela is right! this trick is made simply by the effects of light on water, when you put your hand in the sink you will notice that your hand is wider that it is out of water.
A simple trick but very effective!
there HOT
things look bigger underwater,put your fingers in a glass of water, they are bigger in the water than out of it, freaky!
PHOTOSHOP!!!!!!!!!!!!*^_^*
lol they look wierd
thank you eveyone for stating the obvious.
tho the ‘magnifies thro refraction’ theory is valid when they are actually i the water but it is clearly photoshopped. im suprised no one else noticed this but their bodies are shiny and their white shirts arent very, well to be blunt, see through so its clerar that their bodies wernt underwater at time of photo and the the water/air border provides a nice space to merge the 2 photos (two bodies to two heads) together. another mystery solved…
Water bends light, period, just like glass or any other transparent material. It’s hard to notice, because windows are so flat and smooth, but the images you see our your living room windows are distorted as well, just not much.
no clue. :)
I think it is because the photo was shot from under the water, looking up, so the head and body sizes are different
Firstly i would like to say to he/she Uli Rohman that we dont need to know that much of your stupid science knowledge, secondly it aint really that hard, obvioulsy when you put somthing in water it appears larger DUHHHHHH. finally to dave goodman (your name gives it all mr goody too shoes) we dont need a science lecture.
WATER MAKES OBJECTS APPEAR LARGER THAN THEY ARE….. WOOOHOOO IM CLEVER IM MRS ROHMAN GOODMAN.
That is really wierd. I think that they took two pics and ethier used image blender or Adobe 6.0 Photo. And by the way vodoo or whatever you call it does not exit even though you may think that it is cool and that is does exist you are going to have to face the facts some day. Well I thought that i would just let all you pepps know what I think so now you know. Have a good.:)
if u take a clear galss of water then a straw put it in the water look at it about the hight of the water then notice the straw is somahow bigger in tha water it warks the sam way ur eyes suck lol jk
weird
its pretty obvious…when you put something halfway in water, the top half appears smaller than the bottom half
Those girls are obviously Japanese. Don’t just asume because they are oriental that they are automatically Chinese. There is a huge difference.
I’m ‘oriental’ and I can’t tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese people.
I’m sorry but all of you are wrong (well you are right when it comes to expaining how water works and the index and other stuff) but the photo wasn’t made that way. There were 2 pictures taken: one of the water and the second one of the girls. THE GIRLS ARE NOT IN THE WATER. They just seem to be in it. Now in photoshop you duplicate their heads onto an other layer, erase their original heads and resize the copied ones. Now on top of those two you add the water (with thish you can play a bit and make it more transparent leaving the line visible). On the rest of the body u use a gradient (from black to transparency) and add a backgroud above the water level (u can even draw it by hand).
The Picture is so great because the photographer used the rules of nautre for his cause but because everybody who looks at it think he did :)
sorry for spelling mistakes (english isn’t my native language)
This am be an photojiggered picture, albeit based upon a photo that illustrates a real phenomenon (refraction of light by water).
The manipulation performed was to move the heads, but leave the size unchanged. Unmolested, the photo would have the models’ heads closer together, and apparently disconnected from their necks.
The explanation is due to the angles between the focal point (i.e. the observer’s eye) and the models. Just as the light from the bodies is refracted (it appears larger), so is the space between the models.
The contrived illusion takes advantage of the casual observer’s experience of refraction (the pencil in the water bending), and the fact that they will not think about empty space being refracted.
Weeeeelllll…..
I think it’s pretty obvious……
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:P heheh
well i think it may be just a painting that the girls are standing behind. and its an advertisment for nike i mean look at the logo on their swimsuits.. !]
my husband got me hooked on this website! It looks really cool!
where are they swimmin’ it looks so dark?
Shoji Uchida is a Japanese name… any chance these are Japanese girls, not Chinese?
there are tow diffrent pics
All u smart ppl rule the world!
there are two diffrent pics
Photo shop of two pictures:-D.
If they were really underwater, we would be able to see their boobs; they’re wearing white sports attire. I mean come onnn, they don’t even look wet. and the shadows on the bottom corners, they spell out photo shop.
I think its one of those boards you stick your head in to get a photo lol, notice how you cant see the right chicks hair in the water
welll maby he took the two girs from the water and then just cut off the heads in the pichure editing and then took another pichure when they r out of the water and cut the body of that pichure and then just connected them toghether
The water magnifies the body, the head it actual size
Yoda82 is one of the few who have it right here. Don’t you does remember elementary school science. What light passes through water gets distorted. That’s why you can use a drop of water as a magnifying glass