Envision this: You’re in a dark room and you need to read something that’s kind of blurry. You might as well be reading it underwater.
No problem! A new video by Minute Physics shows you how to see without your specs. Just form a tight circle with your fingers and look through it. Voila! Your Mr. Magoo peepers (sort of) turn 20/20.
The quick-talking clip likens the process to shrinking the aperture of a camera. “Using smaller and smaller apertures makes everything in your photo come into focus,” the narrator says.
But a small aperture corrects blurry images by blocking light, so what we see is darker. To avoid that, we use lenses for glasses, contacts, telescopes, and the like, according to Minute Physics.
The snappy little optic lesson has attracted the attention of millions since it was posted April 27 — and it’s not the first time the Internet has looked at the concept.
We can just imagine an army of people slumped over menus, price tags, and books, looking through their hand as if it were a monocle. The trick might look a tad dorky in a restaurant, but at least you’ll be able to order!
