Honorable Mention - Natural Category

Title: In a Dog’s Eye
Student: Jason Goldman
School: Ladue Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis, MO
Teacher: Richard Witt

This photograph shows how a dog’s eye reflects what the dog sees. The cornea of the dog’s eye is a transparent object that allows the light from the image of the room to pass through. However, when this light hits the eye, not all of the light goes through. Part of the light that hits the dog’s eye is reflected back into the camera, creating the virtual image of the room in the dog’s eye. On the other hand, the black and white hair around the dog’s eye does not show a virtual image because the hair only reflects certain colors back to the camera instead of reflecting all of the light like the eye. Also, the image that is reflected in the dog’s eye is formed on a convex mirror. Since a virtual image formed by a convex mirror appears smaller and c loser to the mirror, the virtual image in the dog’s eye is smaller than the original image. This allows the dog to see a wider area than if the lens was flat since the convex shape of the lens condenses the image. Also, the convex lens causes the rays from the room to enter the dog’s eye and converge on the cones and rods.