Which optical effect explains why Alhazen's pinhole camera (camera obscura) produced inverted images?

💡 Explanation

When light passes through a small hole in camera obscura, rectilinear propagation of photons means rays from the top of an object pass through the pinhole and continue in a straight line to the bottom of the image plane, and vice versa, creating image inversion. Therefore rectilinear propagation explains the inversion, rather than refraction or diffraction requiring different optical elements.

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