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 issue with damage on your eyes depends on the amount of light that enters your eyes. The iris in the eye controls how much light enters. When it is dark the iris opens to let more light. When it is daylight the iris closes to let less light enter. So during the day less light enters your eyes so you are able to look at the sun without worrying. The time depends per person but around 30 seconds should be fine. Permanent damage can occur in about 100 minutes. All this is perfectly fine for a quick glance while playing soccer.
As for why there is a problem during eclipse. During an eclipse, the sky goes dark. If it’s a total eclipse it can appear as if it’s night time. During this time, like I said, the iris opens up to let a lot of light in, but it’s dark and it fine. Until the sun shows up. Now it’s very bright, lots of light and your eyes are letting in lots of light. That can damage your eyes very very quickly because the iris is open and the amount of light entering is many many times larger.
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