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Peripheral Vision | He Whiringa Kite Rewha

Introduction

Abstract
An experiment showing that peripheral vision is mostly colour blind. It is difficult to tell the colour of objects in your peripheral vision and they often appear black or grey.

Principles Illustrated
It is difficult to tell the colour of objects in your peripheral vision and they often appear black or grey.
The retina is covered with light detectors called rods that see in dim light but do not detect colours, and cones that need brighter light but can distinguish colours. Although rods do not distinguish colours, their sensitivity does depend on colour - in fact, they are relatively insensitive to red light. The rods and cones are not distributed uniformly on the retina. The edges of the retina have a relatively low density of cones and thus colour sensitivity in peripheral vision is weak.

Content

Video

English version

Te Reo Māori Version

Instructions

Shake a square of coloured paper near the edge of vision while the participant looks straight ahead as shown in the video. Ask the participant to tell you when he/she is first visually aware of the object. He/she probably cannot tell the colour reliably. This demonstration works best with colours that are not too bright and in relatively dim light.
You can find some useful discussion of human vision on the Hyperphysics web site among many others.

Peripheral Example
What colour is it?
Peripheral Retina Cones Rods
A sketch of the eye.

Other Information

Safety

Individual teachers are responsible for safety in their own classes. Even familiar demonstrations should be practised and safety-checked by individual teachers before they are used in a classroom.

He Kōwhai Rūkahu? (Is it Really Yellow?), Kitenga Tae (Seeing Colours), Te Kokinga o te āhea o Ngā Whatu (Eye Resolution).

Notes, Applications, and Further Reading

You can find some useful discussion of human vision on the Hyperphysics web site among many others.

Credits

This teaching resource was developed by the Te Reo Māori Physics Project with support from