Eli5 why are you able to see lights far away but the light it projects doesn’t go nearly as far? (Car lights, street lights, etc)

Question

Eli5 why are you able to see lights far away but the light it projects doesn’t go nearly as far? (Car lights, street lights, etc)

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Answer 1

Simply put; it doesn’t take much light to be seen, but it takes a lot of light to project and reflect off of other things.