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The human eye is one of the most powerful machines
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It's like a 500 megapixel camera
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that can run in bright light,
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in near darkness,
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and even under water, though not real well.
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It communicates to our brains
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so much about the world.
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Our eyes are how we find partners,
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how we understand the people around us,
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and how we watch game shows on TV
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where people get knocked into cold water
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by padded wrecking balls.
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Yup, the human eye is pretty neat,
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and we're lucky enough to have two of them.
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But, there are things that,
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despite looking really hard,
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we still can't quite see.
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For example, you can watch a horse galloping,
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but your eyes can't keep up with its fast-moving hooves
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enough to figure out whether all four feet
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are ever off the ground simultaneously.
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For these types of questions, we need cameras.
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About 150 years ago,
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the photographer Eadweard Muybridge used one
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to solve the galloping horse mystery.
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Using careful photography,
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Muybridge proved that at certain points as it gallops,
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a horse really is flying.
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"Look, ma! No hooves!"
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Since then, photography has found its way
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into all aspects of math and science.
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It enhances our understanding of a world
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we thought we could already see,
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but it's one which we really need help
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to see a little better.
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It's not always a matter of the world
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moving by too quickly for our eyes to process.
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Sometimes cameras can help us see matter or movements
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that are too small for the naked eye.
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Botanists use multiple photographs
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to show the life cycle of plants
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and how flowers turn over the course of a few hours
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to follow the sun in what is called phototropism,
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growing towards the light.
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Mathematicians have used photos
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to look at where in the twists and turns of a whip
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the crack sound comes
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when the whip is breaking the sound barrier.
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