Why Do We Draw Pointy Stars?

in #stars8 years ago

-"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."
Here's a deep question:
"When we draw a star, why do we draw it with points, even when we know spheres don't have points? It's a question I hadn't thought to ask, and the answer frankly surprised me; the super-short version is that we see them as pointy, due to various OPTICAL properties."
Set aside three minutes for Minute Physics to explain:
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Minute Physics also points to this research paper (PDF) entitled Shape of stars and OPTICAL quality of the human eye, which is full of interesting ILLUSTRATIONS. Note: please do not shine lasers into your eyes in order to test this; squinting is acceptable. Thank you.

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Is it a star if it's not pointy?