Parallax is how objects in the distance appear differently than objects up close depending on your viewpoint. If you’re over to one side, you’ll see something different than if you’re over to the other side.

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You’ve seen this in video games where the background scrolls by more slowly than the foreground, where the main character is.

Astronomers use parallax to measure the distances of stars. Closer stars will look slightly different when the Earth is on one point of its orbit compared to 6 months later when it’s on the other side of the sun.

Parallax shows up in binoculars, microscopes, and other devices where you look through something that uses both eyes. It’s is also how our eyes gain depth perception by overlapping what you see from each eye. Next time you’re in the passenger seat of a car, look at the speedometer and compare your reading with that of the driver’s.

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