Bizarre ‘impossible’ illusion is driving fans crazy – can your eyes outsmart it?

A LOVER OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS has discovered a nifty trick that will truly blow your mind.

The taunts seem simple on the surface until they start to move.

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See the trick? Credit: @pickover

It shows two rectangles: one is yellow and the other is blue.

They move slowly on a black and white screen with vertical stripes.

It seems that one is always ahead, but apparently not at all.

If you wait until the end, the background will turn gray and show that they are actually moving at the same time all the time.

So why does one always seem to come before the other?

Cliff Pickover, who shared the illusion on Twitter, linked to a scientific paper that apparently explains it.

“Illusions Show Contrast Affects Apparent Speed,” the study was titled.

It is officially known as the illusion of the step.

And it basically comes down to the change in contrast that occurs between the black and white stripes.

As Marco Bertamini’s book Programming Visual Illusions for Everyone explains, “A dark object will have high contrast relative to a white fringe and low contrast relative to a black fringe.

“The opposite is true for a light object.

“As a result, moving at a constant speed can appear to be speeding up and slowing down.”

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Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education

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