Everybody loves optical illusions!
Here are 25 of the most amazing optical illusions for you to figure out.
25.
Rotating Rings If you stare at the dot in the center and
move your head away from the screen the rings will start to rotate.
Now gradually get closer again they change direction!
24.
Hermann Grid This is a classic illusion named after Ludimar
Hermann who discovered it in 1870.
At every point where the white lines intersect our eyes perceive a gray, shadowy blob.
If you look directly at one of the intersections though, the blob disappears.
23.
Fading Image Stare at the image for about half a minute
without moving your eyes and watch as it gradually disappears.
This is a variation of Troxler's effect which essentially says that if you fixate your eyes
on a certain point, stimuli near that point will gradually fade.
22.
Kanizsa Triangle The Kanizsa Triangle was named after the psychologist
Gaetano Kanizsa who first described its effect.
When you look at the image your brain creates contours (outlines) of a triangle although
none exist.
In reality it is an illusion created by the the wedges and the angles.
21.
Blivet This is a rather famous illusion of an impossible
object.
It has two rectangular prongs at one end that morph into three cylindrical prongs at the
other.
20.
Monster Illusion Found in virtually every psychology textbook
in the world, the two monsters in this illusion are in fact the same size.
Your brain automatically adjusts images that it perceives to be distant in order to compensate
for the fact that they are larger than they seem.
19.
Jastrow Illusion Named after Robert Jastrow in 1889, the bottom
figure appears to be larger although they are both the same size.
This is because the shorter edge of "A" is directly adjacent to the longer edge of "B".
18.
Fraser Spiral First described by British psychologist James
Fraser in 1908, this illusion is also known as the "false spiral".
While it appears that the overlapping arcs are spiralling into infinity they are in fact
only a series of concentric circles.
17.
Scintillating Grid This is a variation of the Hermann Grid where
black dots appear and disappear at the intersections of the gray lines.
Interestingly enough, if you cock your head at a 45 degree angle the effect is reduced
(but not eliminated).
16.
Blue vs Green There are several variations to this illusion
but the effect is the same.
The "blue" and "green" backgrounds are in fact the same color (open it in photoshop).
15.
Endless Staircase This is a variation of the endless staircase
illusion constructed out of legos.
Like the the blivet, this is also an impossible object and is sometimes called the "Penrose
triangle".
14.
Black on White Stare at the center of the image for about
30 seconds and then look away at a preferably white surface (sometimes the ceiling works).
What do you see?
13.
Zöllner Illusion This illusion was named after Johann Karl
Friedrich Zöllner and consists of parallel lines that appear to be diagonal.
You may need a ruler for this one.
12.
Hering Illusion Although the two red lines seem to be bowed
outwards they are perfectly straight and parallel.
This illusion is attributed to Ewald Hering, a German physiologist who believed that the
distortion was derived from the mind overestimating the angles at the points of intersection.
11.
Titchener Circles Also known as the Ebbinghaus Illusion, there
is still a debate in psychological circles as to the exact mechanism and implication
of this effect.
Essentially, however, the orange circle on the left appears to be smaller than the one
on the right although in reality they are the same size.
10.
Leaning Tower Yes, the leaning tower of pisa does actually
lean, but these two images are in fact one and the same.
Although the image on the right appears to be leaning away from the one on the left this
is only in your head.
Go ahead and try the same thing with the empire state building it will lean too, promise.
9.
Wonder Block Yet again we have an example of an impossible
object except this time it's the rotation of the blocks that is inconsistent.
Are they side by side or on top of each other?
Maybe thats why they call them indecipherable figures.
8.
Floating Stairs For centuries artists have been pushing our
perceptual limits and if you ever get lucky enough, from the right angle, you may just
catch a glimpse into the practical artistic applications of optical illusions and the
way our mind interprets them.
7.
Spinning Silhouette Created by web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara,
some people at first see the figure spinning clockwise while others see it spinning counterclockwise.
Don't spend too much time trying to decipher it though, you could be here all day.
6.
Up and Down Although it is obvious that the pillars are
staying in the same horizontal position, our brain is convinced that they should be moving
to the right.
5.
Rotating Squares At first this one may be hard to see, but
if you begin to scan back and forth across the image you will notice that the squares
in your periphery begin to rotate.
As soon as your eyes stop moving, however, rotation will cease.
4.
Static Motion No, this is not an animated GIF.
The image really is static.
Notice that when you look at any individual point dead on, it will stop moving.
This powerful illusion is derived from interacting color contrasts and shape positions within
the image.
3.
Lilac Chaser Also known as the pac-man illusion, if you
stare at the center cross for a couple seconds you will begin to perceive a green disco going
around the circle of magenta discs.
After a few more seconds the magenta discs will gradually begin to fade away until all
you see a green disc going in a circle around the cross (if you're having trouble seeing
it move closer to the screen).
2.
Cafe Illusion Another famous illusion, this one was recently
rediscovered in a cafe wall at the bottom of St. Michael's Hill.
Although the lines appear to be diverging from one another they are in fact quite parallel.
1.
Checker Shadow Illusion Probably one of the most unbelievable illusions
out there, this one was first published by Edward Adelson, a professor at MIT.
Although the square labeled "A" appears to be darker than the square labeled "B", they
are actually exactly the same shade of gray.
Its okay if you don't believe it, we didn't either, but Photoshop proved us wrong.
Thumbs up and thank you for watching!