Your perception of this graph is a graph of your perception

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/10/your-perception-of-this-graph.html

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For those of you with really good contrast vision, after stepping across the room you should also squint until your eyes are almost closed; that will let you “see” the hidden picture.

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I wish that I would look like George Clooney when people take a few steps back from me. Alas, a Jewish Jerry Garcia seems to be the best I can manage.

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All the peaks go to the top except the first one, right?

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I saw both faces at the same time! I win the internet!

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What graph?

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Now I know why the terrible contrast levels of everyone else’s photos in Intro to Black and White photography always annoyed the shit out of me.

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It’s not a graph, it’s an image. A graph of the perception would be a curved line.

Furthermore, the image is pixellated and displayed on a computer monitor with its own limitations, which affects the high-frequency response. So the results aren’t meaningful at the right end of the image.

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Your perception of this graph is a graph of your perception

Or a graph of how your monitor’s contrast is set.

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By that reckoning, one can never see a graph. Merely an image of a graph.

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Forunately an image of a graph is itself a graph.

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It’s an image. But your perception of it turns it into a personalized “graph”*. That’s the whole point. But call it a chart if it makes you feel better.

And it’s still works even if on a monitor. If you don’t see peaks at the right end, whether due to the monitor or your own eyes, then the results are still meaningful. It means you are limited by your eyes or your monitor.

*A graph is only a curved line one of several mathematical definitions of graph. The statistics definition: A graph is a picture that represents data in an organized manner. And graph theory doesn’t concern lines, even though it uses them to represent graphs.

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Right there with you bruh

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thank you. i really didn’t get it until i tried your squint trick

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broken cane handle

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Duck! Cream pie!

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