I'm a phd student at Oxford, working on the philosophy of perception. I would like to ask for people's help on a question of optics. This question arose when I was thinking about the following hypothesis:
Could everything look smaller to you than to me, without there being any behavioural difference between you and me?
The question of optics arose because I'm trying to evaluate this hypothesis by thinking about minimizing and magnifying lenses. Since I think there is an optical question here, I thought that a forum of optics experts could be very helpful.
Let me explain what I think the optical question is here.
Normally, when you put on magnifying lenses, two things happen: 1.) whatever you see before you looks larger than before, and 2.) the physical angle that you see in the world decreases (i.e. you see a smaller angle of stuff).
Similarly, when you put on minimizing lenses, I assume (though I haven't tried minimizing lenses), again two things happen: 1.) whatever you see before you looks smaller, and you come to see a wider physical angle than you did before (i.e you see a wider angle of stuff).
The question I'd love some help on is this. Are there optical lenses that can make the stuff you see before you look bigger/smaller, without affecting how much stuff you see, i.e. without affecting the physical angle that you see?
These would be optical lenses that did 1.) above without doing 2.). For instance, they would be lenses that reduced the apparent size of everything you see, without increasing your viewing angle. Or they would be lenses that increased the apparent size of everything you see, without decreasing your viewing angle.
What interests me about such lenses is that they would generate pure apparent size effects, without generating any effects on the size of viewing angle. They would, in effect, perform a perfect reduction of the size of the visual image, preserving all the proportions of the things in that visual image, and without making you see a wider angle of objects in the visual image.
Does anyone know whether lenses that meet this description exist? As I said, these lenses, I think, would not be standard magnifying/minimizing lenses, since the standard magnifying/minimizing lenses that I've come across have both effects: they alter apparent size, and also affect your viewing angle. So, in wanting to find lenses that have just the first effect alone, I realize that I may be asking about some fairly non-standard lenses.
I'd be extremely grateful for any feedback on whether such lenses do exist. Many thanks in advance for your help!
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