Depth perception

Depth perception is how we understand how far away things are from us. It's like playing a game of catch with a friend. When you see the ball coming towards you, you know how hard to throw it back because you can tell how far away your friend is from you.

Our eyes see things in two dimensions (width and height) but our brain uses many clues to figure out how far away something is from us. The two most important clues are parallax and convergence.

Parallax is like when you move your head from side to side while looking at something like a tree. When you move your head, your eyes see the tree in a slightly different way. Your brain uses this difference to figure out how far away the tree is.

Convergence is when you look at something close up, like a toy car. When you look at the car, your eyes have to turn inwards a little bit so that they are both looking at the same thing. Your brain uses this information to know that the car is close to you.

We also use other clues like shadows, texture, and size to figure out how far away things are. All of these clues together help us have good depth perception so that we can move around safely and catch that ball from our friend.