Why are Stars Star-Shaped?

And also to our Subbable subscriber Mathias Larssen!

"Shape of stars and optical quality of the human eye" by Rafael Navarro and M. Angeles Losada, Vol. 14, No. 2/February 1997/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A

Eye Photos courtesy of:
Anthony Kelly
Elliot Bennett
flickr user jyotsna210
flickr user martinak15
wikimedia user Hminden
Magdalena Roeseler
Michael Gäbler
wikimedia user Woodwalker
Steve Jurvetson
And twitter - @minutephysics

Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute!

[WintersunForever]

"By shining lasers in peoples' eyes" Science is fun!

[el]

"as researches have confirmed by shining laser in human eyes"
well that sounds nice...

[samwallaceart]

Being an illustrator, this kind of stuff interests me. The thing about making each and every star the same shape once you've chosen one is something I never thought of before, but I'll make sure to never forget.

[TheOrthodoxWaffle]

"As researchers have confirmed by shining lasers in people's eyes"

Oh sure, but when i do it it's "A danger to other Delta Airline passengers"

Typical...

[Forssa]

Don't try shining lases in your eyes yourself, tho.

[razerage]

0:50 the robot voice is so satisfying, how to edit like that?

[smartereveryday]

Great Video Henry.  I have a question about the colored star points though.  Wouldn't the Red stack up with the blue and Green?  Would this create something like white light towards the center, yet still allow the longer diffraction colors to "poke out" around the white?  

Also, I really liked the music in this video.  Great job man.

[buciallstar]

Why do I have the feeling that the entire point of this video is to make rainbow colored stars a thing?

[Wafflical]

So really, the stars are in your eyes?

[niaei]

Dude. what kind of sorcery is this?
I just found answers for two different questions that I asked myself within last two months in your channel.
Thank you. Very very thank you.

[ZyphLegend]

Shining lasers in people's eyes? That just reminded me of high school, lol.

[Miumiu]

What about the heart? Why is the heart shaped like that when the organ heart looks different?

[Splox]

I've been wondering about the rainbow coloring thing for quite some time now and never bothered to look up the reason. I am incredibly near-sighted, and so I wasn't sure if that was the main cause of it or not. I am pleasantly surprised to have learned the answer to that particular mystery. Thank you.

[inevitable]

Thank you! I was driving home a few nights ago and have been trying to speculate why when I look at street lamps they have the round rainbow coloring to them (once you are close enough, otherwise you get the diffraction pattern like mentioned in the video) ! Keep up the great work, Henry. I always look forward to your next video and continue to rewatch your past ones!

[thecuriousengineer]

loved the "interfere with each other" part. Awesome as always. :)

[shenghong]

How about "why are hearts heart-shaped?" :)

[livinthelamb]

the science nerd in me is crying tears of joy.

[priitsan]

Yes! Finally! I have spent so many hours squinting at streetlights and stars trying to figure this out.This has had me scraching my head for at least 20 years and finally you helped scratch that itch. Oh and does it feel good, thanks a lot! :)

[Manfred_Messer]

physics can be so awesome, but why is school physics so booring?

[dancoulson]

I knew it had something to do with the eye!
I remember blurring my eyes, and looking at points of light coming from a few LED's close to each other. Each blurred LED light had exactly the same shape blur to it, with the little lines and ridges etc.