Pseudoscope

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Dr. Goodword
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Pseudoscope

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:41 am

• pseudoscope •

Pronunciation: s(y)u-dê-skop • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An optical device that distorts vision so that concavity and convexity are reversed, resulting in the opposite of stereoscopic vision; "Eschervision", so to speak, for M. C. Escher once used a pseudoscope when painting his mentally confusing picures. For a picture of one, click here.

Notes: The practice of using a pseudoscope is pseudoscopy [s(y)u-dah-skê-pi] and vision so distorted is pseudoscopic [s(y)u-dê-skah-pik], as pseudoscopic mirrors at an amusement park. The term is used widely in discussions of holography for, if you flip a hologram over, it seems to be inside out, a pseudoscopic effect. A pseudoscopic view is one in which the raised surfaces seem sunken and sunken surfaces, raised. To see the pseudoscopic effect, click here.

In Play: Myopic refers to short-sightedness, but today's word suggests a reversal of perspective, so that the prominent seems diminished and the diminished, prominent: "Sometimes the press presents us with a rather pseudoscopic view of events in the world." While few of us will ever use or even see a pseudoscope, distorted vision is something we come in contact with all too often: "The marketing firm I work for is a huge pseudoscope that leaves you with a false sense of reality."

Word History: The term comes from an invention by the physicist Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875). The word is based on the Greek pseudes "false" from pseudein "to lie" + skop- from skopein "to look at, examine". The root for scope is actually spek- "observe". The [p] and [k] underwent metathesis (switched places) in Greek. It is thus also the source of Latin specere "look", a root we find in perspective, inspect, spectator, spectacle, and dozens of others. It also underlies Old Germanic spih-on "spy", which ended up as spy in English and was borrowed as shpion "spy" by Russian. In fact, James Bond's archenemy, SMERSH, is a blend of smert' shpionam "death to spies", a secret Soviet counterintelligence agency during World War II. (We are not so pseudoscopic as to misjudge our debt to Greg Rutter of Queensland for suggesting today's Good Word.)
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Pseudoscope

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:19 pm

I thought I knew science. This one totally escaped me. I have no idea what it means even after reading the Good Doctor's artfully crafted discussion. But anything that is pseudo is alright with me.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

Perry Lassiter
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Re: Pseudoscope

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:43 pm

Love Escher's work!

If feeling whimsical, google "elgoogle" and try the verious colored buttons.
pl


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