How level is "level" to the naked human eye? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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?

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[-] yuri@pawb.social 3 points 3 days ago

depends HEAVILY on the eye. some folks are really good at eyeballing shit. usually this goes hand in hand with other “visual calculus” skills like telling whether two things are the same size or determining angles at a glance.

reckon it’s just spatial reasoning + visualization + practice. i had an uncle who could look at a mechanical system and tell you exactly where all the wear would occur. i always thought it was some kind of savant trick until i started working on similar stuff.

the brain is just another muscle, you can train it to so all sorts of really amazing things!

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025

77 points (97.5% liked)

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