How do car headlights look so bright from far away but only really illuminate a small area?
In: Technology
The beams from a car’s headlights are very concentrated. The housing they sit in isn’t just for show, but are designed to reflect as much light as possible onto the road in front of it.
The point is that the light is concentrated. Take the bulb out of the housing and point it in the same direction and you’ll find it won’t light up the road nearly as well because the light is free to scatter in all directions.
As for why they look so bright, it depends entirely on your angle. There are some modern cars which train their beams so effectively with LEDs that you can’t even tell they’re turned on if they’re sat at a 90° angle to you, whereas on older cars you’d see light bleeding out in all directions.
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