Our eyes are amazing tools that allow us to experience the world and tell our brain what is going on around us. But what happens when our brain can't understand what he sees? Optical illusions create a miscommunication between our eyes and brain making us see things that are not really there or not seeing things that are right in front of our eyes. Try it for yourself and you'll see: |
Theses three cars all look to be in different sizes right? |
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Wrong, they are all the same size. |
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Are you having trouble figuring out who is in the picture? Cross your eyes a bit and the answer will be clear. |
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Stare at the woman's nose for about 10 seconds and then blink a few times while looking at a white wall. Look at the woman again and she is now in full color. |
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Stare at this picture for about 30 seconds then look at the one below it. |
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Focus on the black dot in the center of the picture until it changes to black and white. Only now the picture isn't black and white, your brain automatically adds the color. Blink a few times and the picture is black and white again. |
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All the little circles in the picture are white but as you look over them some seem to turn black. |
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This park in Paris looks like it has a huge statue of a globe with tiny people on it. |
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But it's really a very clever flat garden design. |
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By putting two different picture of a face one on top of the other you can get this amazing face photo. |
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A 3 dimensional painting looks like an accident waiting to happen. |
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If you look closely at each dot you will see that none of them are moving in a circle or changing color. |
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Is the orange circle on the right really bigger than the one on the left? |
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No, they are both the same size, you're welcome to test it yourself. |
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This is a nice little trick called the Ames room. We expect a room to be square and even but this room is really a trapez which means we can't see what is really going on. |
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It's hard to believe but A and B are both the same color. |
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And here's the proof: |
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Despite what you might see, none of these circles in the first picture are moving or touching each other. |
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And last but not least, the simplest illusions are very often the most beautiful. It's amazing what you can do with a simple mirror. |
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Helen V.
