I was putting up some wall decorations earlier today and was painstakingly realigning everything until it looked level to my eyes. It might be just a hair off, but if I don’t correct it, I’ll see the misalignment almost instantly and get bothered for the rest of time until I fix it. Has anyone investigated, or is there literature on the minimum perceptible angle from level to the naked eye?

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    6·
    11 days ago

    I believe it depends on the environment.
    Meaning crooked walls/ceiling/floor influence what we believe is visually straight.

  • xia@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    4·
    11 days ago

    I recall a carnival-type installation, were a whole house was built at an angle, and at the end of it they had a water spigot they turned on, and the water flowed “uphill” (to the human eye).

  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    I think it depends on 1) the person and 2) the context and 3) the desired precision. I would use an actual level to test against my intuition before I’d have confidence in it.

  • bobbyfiend@lemmy.ml
    2·
    11 days ago

    According to almost every photo I take, about 3 degrees off.

    Pretty sure this is a psychophysics question, though I don’t know that field well enough to know what’s there.