You're reading an artistic explanation, that's the problem.
Yes, that's how artists draw paintings. A painting is not your eye.
teo123 wrote:We don't notice that difference, right?
You wouldn't tend to notice it, no. Also, your eyes only resolve an area very close to the center (around the blind spot) with detail. They track around to take in the whole image.
Nobody looks at things without moving their eyes around, particularly with such a wide angle (as in wide angle photography). You'd only really see a small part of the image at a time.
What we're dealing with is a tilted camera, though:
http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/101659 ... sAt9%2FOao
You'll see in those images that the horizon isn't in the center, or they're wide angle shots.
We're looking up at the sky.
(In a wide angle shot, you can look up at the sky AND down at the ground in the same photo, it's special)
teo123 wrote:I don't really understand how can the Petzval field curvature make the objects appear smaller as they go the end of a scene (if that's what you are saying).
All I'm saying is shown in the diagram.
teo123 wrote:The light ray that goes both through the center of the lens and though the point being projected still gets to the focal plane, even if the image isn't actually there.
I don't know what you're talking about. Draw a diagram and do math.
teo123 wrote:Or maybe the projections in the space project orthogonally on the focal plane? That would make the objects appear smaller, but that doesn't appear to be the way the light works. Let's move it into some different context: if you move a projector away from a plane, the image doesn't only become blurred, it becomes enlarged. Is this a false analogy?
Again, I don't know what you're talking about.
A projector has a lens that spreads the light at an angle.
teo123 wrote:And would you trust a doctor who tells you to start smoking?
You shouldn't, you should trust scientific consensus on that. It's very clear: Smoking is bad for you.
And you should trust scientific consensus on the distance of the sun, which is also very clear, and the shape of the Earth, and rockets, and planes.
None of these things are complicated claims: just believe them if you don't understand them.
teo123 wrote:If not, why should you trust a mathematician (or whatever are you in real life) who appears to imply that homothety stops making similar shaped once the distances get too big?
You should trust scientific consensus on these matters. Go to the most authoritative source. E.g. ADA for nutrition information, WHO, NASA, etc.
Hundreds of scientists are less likely to misunderstand something than one.
teo123 wrote:Now I know that's not what you were saying, but if I didn't try to contradict your arguments, I would start believing nonsense.
That would be fine as long as the moment somebody else credible came along and said something different, you changed your belief to match that.
Your belief should never be committed, but tentative.
When somebody else seems to contradicts me who is credible, then believe them, because you probably misunderstood me (e.g. they probably aren't actually contradicting me, but contradicting your misconception).