Movie 5 (:19)
Script : The streetlamp
turns on and off. Even though the wall is closer to the streetlamp
than the ground, parts of the ground are lit first. To understand
this, we must consider not only the distance of the surface to
the streetlamp, but also the distance to the eye.
Now, a schematic world where we can track the path of individual
photons. As light makes the trip between the lamp, the surface
and the eye, the light which follows the shortest path will reach
the eye first. As the direct route between lamp and eye is shorter
and thus faster, we see the lamp turn on before anything else
is lit. The route to the wall is longer, so it appears later.