Light & Optics
Compound Eye
Look through seven honeycomb-shaped lenses like an insect and discover how a compound eye breaks the world into many individual images.
Look through seven honeycomb-shaped lenses like an insect and discover how a compound eye breaks the world into many individual images.
The Science Behind It
Insects’ compound eyes work in a similar way. Instead of a single lens like the human eye, they have hundreds or thousands of individual visual units (ommatidia), each capturing a small part of the surroundings. The overall image is less sharp than ours, but extremely sensitive to movement—useful for reacting quickly to predators.