the camera obscura.The video on the right shows a person attempting to make a camera obscura in his bedroom. He makes the room entirely light safe (completely dark) by taping black sheets to the windows. He then cuts a small hole to let in a stream of bright light and an upside down image appears on the opposite wall. The reason this happens is because light travels in straight lines.
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This image helps to explain how this works. The light from the top of the object outside the window travels down through the hole to the bottom of the wall opposite. Similarly, the light from the bottom of the tree appears projected at the top of the wall, making the image appear upside down. Artists discovered this phenomenon hundreds of years ago and used it to help them create realistic images of the outside worlds on a two dimensional surface.