The Big Idea: Sometimes our eyes play tricks on us, and the things we think we see
are different from reality. These are called optical illusions. Even though
they seem like magic, it turns out there’s a lot of math involved
The Math Behind the Scenes: We’ll measure the length and width of rectangles, which helps us
calculate their area. We’ll also practice our estimation skills. Some
optical illusions rely on refraction, the “bending” of light rays. Others
rely on our “blind spot” – the area in our eye that can’t pick up light.
We can use math to figure out how large it is!