When u go inside the cinema in mid afternoon,,then when u enter the cinema hall,

Question:in sunny afternoon,,u enter a dark theatre u alomsot cant see the seats where u want to seat? why?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: in sunny afternoon,,u enter a dark theatre u alomsot cant see the seats where u want to seat? why?

Because your pupils are still very contracted from having been outside in the sun.

The pupil/iris in the eye is actually a muscle - it expands and contracts to allow in the correct amount of light so that you can see in a variety of lighting situations. When you are in the bright sunlight, your pupil contracts so that it becomes very small, so that it will only let in just enough light for you to see - if it let in too much, the light would burn the inside of your eye and damage your vision.

Because of this, when you walk into a dark room (like the movie theater) your pupils are still contracted, so they are not letting in very much light. Within a minute or so your pupils expand to allow more light to enter the eye, and you start to be able to see things better.

This is the same reason your eyes hurt when you walk OUT of the movie theater, back into the bright sunlight. Your pupils are dilated because they were adapted to the dark theater, and now they are TOO dilated and are letting too much light into the eye, so the muscle rapidly contracts to protect the inner eye, causing the pain.

Because Your Pupils Have To Adjust To The New Lighting.

the pupils of your eyes (the dark inner spot) gets larger or smaller to adjust for amounts of light. When your outside and it's sunny, your pupil will get really small to limit the amount of light. If you walk into a dark room after being outside, your pupil will need some time to adjust to the light setting. Try this, stand in front of a mirror with the lights off for like two or three minutes, then flip the light on while looking into the mirror and watch your pupils. You will see them get smaller.

You've gotten the right answers above but here's a tip to tackle the situation:

Just before you enter the auditorium, close your eyes tightly for a few seconds. Then open the door / curtain with your eyes still closed, step in and open your eyes. You'll find that they adjust more easily to the darkness.

It can take ten minutes or longer for your eyes to fully adjust to a dramatic change in lighting, such as daylight to a darkened theater. Theoretically, that's why pirates wore a patch over one eye: so it would always be adjusted to darkness and they could maneuver below decks with relative ease, then flip the patch over to the other eye when on deck and in bright sunlight.