Optical Perception

[Michael O'Sullivan]

I am curious as to which imperfections really stand out, and which our eyes do not notice. As an example, I was just looking at one of my first projects -- a 3-legged stool. I am sure that the circular top is nowhere near close to being a geometrically perfect circle, but my eyes cannot see any real flaw. However, if I traced it onto a piece of paper, it would not be close to perfect. On the other hand, the alignment of the legs was off-center by about 1/8" and it is extremely noticeable.

I am curious if others have thought about this more than I have.

[John Keeton]

Seems I tend to notice vertical differences much more so than horizontal - as long as there aren't alignment issues that draw one's eye to the horizontal line. That probably accounts for the legs being noticed - and, perhaps the seat being out of round, while in itself isn't noticed, accentuates the leg placement.