Why do objects viewed underwater while scuba diving or snorkeling appear closer and larger than they really ar?
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Water acts like a magnifying glass and lows things up, that’s why if you are standing above water and put your hand underwater and then slowly take it out, it’s instantly smaller as soon as you talke it out of the water.
Light is refracted (‘bent’) as it passes from water into the glass, and then again as it passes from the glass into the mask airspace. In really basic terms, the light changes speed as it passes from one phase of matter to another, which alters its angle of travel. If you want more detail about WHY this refraction effect occurs, then you need to start looking into ‘quantum electrodynamics’ (most of which is way beyond me!).
Anyway, in this case, the refraction also creates a magnifying effect, just like the lens in a magnifying glass or a telescope, so everything looks bigger/closer than it really is (mainly because your brain is ‘programmed’ to assume that it is looking at objects through air only).