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These 30 amazing optical illusions will amaze you
What is an optical illusion?
An optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source.
There are many types of optical illusion, some natural and some man-made but all of them give us a glimpse into our incredibly complex minds. At the end of it, itโs all in your head.
Check out the compilation listย ofย 30 most incredible optical illusions.
- 4 Perfectly Round Circles
When you look at the picture, the circles may look intertwined. But, what actually you see are 4 perfectly round circles.
- Moving Pictures
If you look at the picture, it may look like an animated image. But in reality, it is a static picture. It moves when you look at the picture, but if you just stare at one part of the image, you will see that it stops moving.
- Spinning Wheels
When you focus on one wheel, you will see it’s not moving. But when you move your eyes around from one wheel to the next, all of them appear to be spinning.ย By focusing again on any wheel individually, it will stop turning, but the wheels around it will.
- Pink Dots
Stare at the black plus sign (“+”) in the center of the image. First, the moving dot turns to green. Then as you continue to stare, all the pink dots will disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating. After some time, you will see the dots disappear, but reappear briefly after being passed by green dot. Dots in certain positions disappear quickly and dots in other positions can persist for several additional rotations of the green dot.
- Two Faces In One Picture
The picture says it allโฆ.
- Expanding Circles Illusion
When you focus on the center point, you will see that the circle is expanding.
- Rings Optical Illusion
Are these rings are in motion or not? If you canโt see them in motion, just move your eyes 2- 3 times from one to another and you will see them in motion.
- Yes or No
A cool optical illusion that shows how things can drastically change just by changing your perspective.
- Anamorphicย Illusion
A simple twist suddenly changes what you thought was a cup is actually a warped drawings that appears 3D when viewed from the right angle.
- Checker Shadow Illusion
The optical illusion is that the area labelled A appears to be a darkerย colorย than the area labelled B. However, within the context of the two-dimensional image, they are of identical brightness, i.e., they would be printed with identical mixtures of ink, or displayed on a screen with pixels of identical color.
- Starry Night Optical Illusion
Look at the center of the spinning image for 30 seconds, and then look at the Starry Night. You will see the Starry Night come to life, as it will appear to be morphing and wavy.
- Black Dot
Stare at the black dot in the middle. You should see the outer edges of the circle fade away!
- Bricks Optical Illusion
When you look at the picture, you will feel that the lines are not parallel. But on a closer look, you will actually find that even though the lines appear to be diverging from one another they are in fact quite parallel.
- Animal Optical Illusion
The black and white picture appears to show a large elephant, however, on a closer look there are a number of different creatures hidden into the body. Can you guess how many?
- Chess pieces or people?
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Do we need to say anything moreโฆ..
- Corner House Illusion
First, cover theย upper halfย of the picture withย your palm, and you will automatically assume that theย window cornerย of this building isย convexย (bulged out). Now, try coveringย the lower halfย of the photo, and you will see the inner corner of the building (concave this time). Amazing, isnโt it?
- White Dot
All of these dots are white, but some appear to be black.
- Hermann Grid
This is a classic optical 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. However, the blob disappears if you look directly at one of the intersections.
- Kanizsa Triangle
Created by Italian psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa in 1955, theย Kanizsa Triangleย is a classic example of illusory contours. When you look at the image your brain creates contours (outlines) a white equilateral triangle although none exist. In reality, it is an illusion created by the wedges and the angles.
- Blivet
This is one of the most famous optical illusion pictures of an impossible object. It appears to have three cylindrical prongs at one end which then mysteriously transform into two rectangular prongs at the other end.
- Jastrow Illusion
Named after the Polish-American psychologist,ย 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 โAโ is directly adjacent to the longer edge of โBโ.
- Fraser Spiral
Described by the British psychologist Sir James Fraser in 1908, theย Fraser spiral illusionย is anย optical illusion where the overlapping black arc segments appear to spiral into infinity; however, the arcs are actually a series of concentric circles.
- Endless Staircase
Constructed out of legos, this variation of the endless staircase optical illusion is also an impossible object like the blivet. It is also sometimes called the โPenrose triangleโ.
- Painted Woman
Created by Johannes Stoetter, a former world champion body painter, it is amazing how a female model has been transformed to look like a parrot.
- Zollner Illusion
Theย Zollner illusionย is a classicย optical illusionย where a pattern surrounding parallel lines creates the illusion that they are not parallel.
- Spinning Silhouette
Created by web designerย Nobuyuki Kayahara, this is a very bizarre dancer optical illusion. At first glance, the spinning lady appears to be spinning in a clockwise motion. However, if you look at the spinning dancer long enough – the lady will appear to change direction and start spinning counter-clockwise.
- Monsters Illusion
Can you tell which of these two monsters is bigger? By now, you would have obviously guessed that they are both the same size. Or are they? This is a perspective illusion.
- Block Illusion
These two blocks are actually the same shade of grey. Place one finger along the centre of the lineย blocking the darker and lighter parts to check.
- Floating Cube
Watch as your mind gets tricked into forming a 3D image of what seems to be a rotating cube.
- Motion Induced Illusion
When you focus closely on that middle dot while the grid rotates, the three yellow dots on the outside will begin to disappear. If you shift your eyes away from the centre, the dots will all reappear. It is a trick of the eye that can cause a person to lose sight of stimuli that are in plain view.