SOMETIMES things need to be seen to be believed and these optical illusions are no exception.
From a breathing square to a Pac-Man illusion, you’ll be amazed at how deceiving your eyes can be.
Optical retailer Lenstore has created these examples of mind boggling illusions and provided explanations as to why your eyes are deceiving you.
The compilation includes an explanation of the Ebbinghaus Illusion which shows how objects of the same size can look bigger or smaller depending on what they are surrounded by.
The Ebbinghaus Illusion is useful to know because it can explain why a full Moon looks so big as it rises.
When the Moon is low on the horizon it can be compared to many earthly things, like buildings and trees – making it seem huge.
These pears are the same colourCredit: Lenstore
However, when it is up in the sky it looks smaller compared to the pitch black vastness.
The Lenstore illusions also explain motion blindness and how dark and bright backgrounds can change your perception of the same colour.
The science behind optical illusions
This brief explanation may help to unscramble your brain…
- Optical illusions make a little bit more sense when you learn that our eyes have very little to do with what we see and it is our brains that play the key role in creating images and trying to protect us from the potential threats around us
- Our brain is constantly trying to make sense of the world at the quickest pace it can despite the world being in 3D and the images on our retinas being in 2D
- It can be really difficult for your brain to interpret everything at once so it will often take shortcuts and give you a simplified version of what you see so you can have quicker reaction times if the object you’re looking at looks dangerous
- When you look at an object what you’re really seeing is the light that bounced off of it and entered your eye, which is converted into electrical impulses that your brain then turns into an image
- Our brains can warp straight lines if an object in the middle of them looks like it’s drawing closer as it wants to emphasize the potential threat
- Different colours and light and dark can make the same sized objects look different or make patterned images look like they’re spinning
In other news, this brain frying optical illusion will leave you wondering what you are seeing.
These mind-bending optical illusions will break your brain.
And, there is something seriously wrong with these beach pebbles but can you guess what it is?
What do you think of these illusions? Let us know in the comments…
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Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education