How do car headlights look so bright from far away but only really illuminate a small area?
In: Technology
Two things:
1) The cone of the light is very narrow so that you don’t waste electricity lighting up the side of the road. When that light is pointed towards you, it seems more intense than a lamp of the same luminosity where the light goes out in all directions.
2) While driving, distances in front of you seem shorter than they are because of how fast you’re moving and perspective. Of you’ve ever stood on the side of a highway you might have been surprised by how long the lines in the road actually are. Your headlights are actually illuminating a larger area than it seems.
Additional fact: many cars have adaptive lighting where the lights’ angle is dependent on the cars speed. The faster you’re going the more outwards your headlights are pointing and the further the lights reach. This in addition to the fact that the lines in the road generally are longer the faster the speed limt is contributes to the illusion that they are much shorter than they actually are.
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