My ten years old got into soccer recently and he’s getting good at it, except, he has this paranoia that he’ll get blind (or will have severe eye damage) if he traces the ball through the air against a sunny backdrop. Because of this he won’t practice in the evening and this is when most training happens.
We had an eclipse recently and I think he took the “don’t look at the sun” mantra way too far and I don’t know how to undo that.
Please help!!!
In: Physics
The reason it’s dangerous to look into the sun during a Solar eclipse is that it’s so much dimmer while still outputting enough invisible UV light to give your retina sunburn.
Normally, if you look at the sun your natural reaction will be to squint or look away, and your pupil will shrink down to keep the light out. During a solar eclipse, your reaction to look away will be lessened and your pupil will not react as much because there is less visible light.
So eclipses are rather unique in that you can stare at the sun without going “oh god my eyes” and immediately closing them, which allows the invisible UV light to make it into you eye and give you burns.
So there’s no need to be afraid of the sun under normal circumstances, as you body’s reactions will automatically protect you so long as you don’t make a conscious effort hold your eyes open and stare at the sun.
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