So why do the pictures of the ball look like ovals?

The images of the ball which appear in this site were produced by putting the ball directly on the bed of a scanner. The scanner has a remarkable depth of field, but it distorts three-dimensional objects, making them appear longer in the direction of the scan. In the case of a sphere, the image appears as an ellipse. The ball was not positioned in any special direction, other than to position the image on the foil sensibly, on the bed of the scanner. The image of the foil was not placed in any particular direction relative to the shape of the ball. The Ball is not a perfect sphere, but it is nowhere as out-of-whack as the scans might indicate.

I used to have, here, a plea for somebody who is knowledgeable about the optics used in bed scanners to shed some light (no pun intended) on the subject. I have gotten the following explanation from Dr. Tony Dew, B.S. He has addressed exclusive right to the following intellectual property to me for inclusion in this site. Uses other than as specified for "The Ball" are strictly prohibited without his express written consent.

The reason that THE BALL tends to posses a more ovular ("having the properties of an oval {a line without end possesing an aspect ratio other than 1:1} i.e. squashed circle) dimension has less to do with the optics of the scanner, but more with the dynamic of the lens. The lens TRAVELS during the scanning process. Therefore the "X" dimension is fixed, while the "Y" dimension moves. (If we were scanning something other than a sphere {or in this case, something closely approxomating one} calculations involving the third {Z} axis would be necessary, removing this discussion from the realm of the layman.)

An example of this very situation would be looking around a tree trunk. If you were to remain in a fixed local you would not be able to view any other elements in your line of vision that were blocked by the trunk. However, if your ocular device (i.e. eye balls) was motile, by travelling horiziontally in a calculated, controlled fashion the "sides" of the trunk as well as everything past it would become visible. The tree is no longer the width of the trunk, and the height of the trunk in question has not been altered.

The caveat is: this visual stimuli is processed by a very powerful and perceptive device (brain) that allows said information to be processed into a real-time, multi syncronous event, a "movie" or more corectly, an "experience". The lowly scanner however is capable of recording a single image of a series of events over time.

Therefore, the scanned image details the APPROACH of THE BALL, THE BALL as it is seen from a point approaching and passing CENTRAL, and THE BALL as the optics PASS. Note that while there is much movement along the "Y" axis, it's counterpart is stationary.


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