Editing Camera obscura (section)

==Physical explanation==
Rays of light travel in straight lines and change when they are reflected and partly absorbed by an object, retaining information about the color and brightness of the surface of that object. Lighted objects reflect rays of light in all directions. A small enough opening in a barrier admits only the rays that travel directly from different points in the scene on the other side, and these rays form an image of that scene where they reach a surface opposite from the opening.<ref name="amateur work">{{cite book|title=Amateur work, illustrated|volume=4|chapter=The Camera Obscura: Its Uses, Action, and Construction|last=Standage|first=H. C.|date=1773|pages=67–71|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=myMGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA67|access-date=11 January 2021|archive-date=10 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110061237/https://books.google.com/books?id=myMGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA67#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[human eye]] (and that of many other animals) works much like a ''camera obscura'', with rays of light entering an opening ([[pupil]]), getting focused through a convex [[lens (anatomy)|lens]] and passing a dark chamber before forming an inverted image on a smooth surface ([[retina]]). The analogy appeared early in the 16th century and would in the 17th century find common use to illustrate Western theological ideas about God creating the universe as a machine, with a predetermined purpose (just like humans create machines). This had a huge influence on behavioral science, especially on the study of perception and cognition. In this context, it is noteworthy that the projection of inverted images is actually a physical principle of optics that predates the emergence of life (rather than a biological or technological invention) and is not characteristic of all biological vision.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stoffregen |first=Thomas A. |date=October 2013 |title=On the Physical Origins of Inverted Optic Images |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10407413.2013.839896 |journal=Ecological Psychology |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=369–382 |doi=10.1080/10407413.2013.839896 |s2cid=145193148 |issn=1040-7413 |access-date=17 September 2023 |archive-date=23 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623125112/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10407413.2013.839896 |url-status=live }}</ref>