This could get very complicated Jamey and we had a lot of trouble with hyperfocal distance IIRC.
I'm not even going to attempt a serious technical answer to this (or imply that I could) but it's probably to do with the fact that as the focal length increases, perpective is compressed, the longer the lens, the more drastic the compression. The camera actually does lie quite signifiicantly, never more so than when using these long lenses.
The compression effect is used deliberately to good effect though in many situations, contrary to popular belief, landscape photographers wiill often use a tele lens rather than a wide angle, to isolate a particular part of a landscape, and the compression effect on distance and perspective gets them a version of the landscape which doesn't in truth really exist. There's a lot more to learning about using different focal length lenses than meets the eye - it's quite a skilful choice in some situations.
A good example of the compression effect is those television shots you see of freeway traffic in the USA particularly, where the vehicles appear all stacked up on each other with no space in between. Deliberately done with a loooooong lens to exaggerate the situation and it does look effective.
Hope that helps mate. Jamey, I'd seriously recommend getting yourself down to the local library where you'll be able to pick up an armful of good books which will answer a lot of these questions for you.
