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Our Ears and Eyes Deceive Us Essay

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We have eyes to see with, ears to hear with, why then do we err?

We have been blessed with five senses that we are expected to survive with. But as technologies improve and our knowledge is broadened, the more we realize that our senses are not as glorious as previously thought. Indeed, man has been blessed with eyes and ears, yet he still errs. What he sees before him, is it correct? What he hears and what he is told, is it inaccurate?

Our perception of our world has been shaped by centuries worth of studies, and recently with the help of technology. We believe what we see in textbooks, we nod in agreement to what we are told. This computer before me, why is it called a computer? How is it made? Why was it made? It is called a …show more content…

What we don’t see as quickly are its many limitations. The relative size of the land masses is distorted. Greenland and Africa seem to be about the same size, but actually Africa is fourteen times bigger. Europe’s size is exaggerated, and placed in the center of the map, which is also untrue. But most importantly it is based on the convention that the Northern hemisphere is at the top of the world, and the Southern hemisphere is at the bottom . Such an assumption is made mainly out of habit, but it is also a topic of contradictory ideas.

It is inaccurate to assume that the Northern hemisphere should be on top, for depending on which angle one looks at the Earth, the Southern hemisphere is on top. This is illustrated by another type of map projection, known as the Hobo-Dyer projection. Although the shapes of the continents are distorted, sizes are reflected accurately. Many people find this map faulty due to the habitual way of thinking that north should be on top. We only believe in this because we have heard this all our lives, and we have seen it in textbooks and read about it. But could it not be possible to we err on this matter? It was simply a coincidence that the first maps were drawn with the North on top. Had it been drawn any other way, then what we believe today would be considered a mistake. Our perception is clouded with such assumptions, and so it is possible that we have made lapses in judgment, and without realizing it

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