How does a hole in the bottom of a Pringles® can make a picture of the world?
The hole doesn’t make the picture. The image of the world is always there. All the hole does is make it possible for you to see it. Suppose you point your Pringles® Pinhole at a brightly lit bouquet of flowers. Light reflects off the red rose, the blue iris, the white daisy, and the green leaves. If you hold a piece of white paper near the bouquet, some of that reflected light will shine on the paper-but it won’t look like anything. That’s because light bouncing off the red rose ends up overlapping with light bouncing off the blue iris, the white daisy, and the green leaves. There are many images of the bouquet on the paper-but they overlap with one another, and the colors all blend together, making a jumble of light.
