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Mountain or valley? Concave or convex? Why is it so difficult to tell the difference when you’re viewing a surface from directly overhead? This short animation from MinutePhysics details how this perceptual illusion is explained by our natural conditioning to the Earth’s most powerful light source – the Sun – which has trained us to perceive light as always being on top and shadows as always being on the bottom.
Video by MinutePhysics
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Food and drink
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Technology and the self
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Knowledge
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Biology
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War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
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Physics
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Technology and the self
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Neuroscience
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Biology
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