Have you ever seen water on the road in front of you but when you get closer, it disappears? Well, that is an optical illusion. An optical illusion tricks your brain to think there is something which you see but which is not actually there. You may see something remarkably different than what it actually is.
Here, are some cool optical illusions that will captivate and absorb you. Stare at them hard and you may be able to find out how these illusions are created.
1. The Blivet
No matter how hard you to try to decipher it, you will not understand why this object appears to be what it looks like. It appears to have three cylindrical prongs at one end and a rectangular block at the other end. Watch it closely and see if you can create an object like this. This is certainly an impossible object.
2. The Café Wall Illusion
This is one of the cool optical illusions that was described by Doctor Richard Gregory when he found this enigmatic pattern at a cafe wall. In this illusion, the straight, horizontal and parallel lines appear to be bent. This is because of the pattern of interchanging light and dark bricks, which are arranged irregularly in rows. In order to create this illusion, the bricks have to be surrounded by a layer of mortar which should be somewhere between the shades of light and dark tone of the bricks. In this case, it is of grey color.
3. Ebbinghaus Illusion
Take two circles of same sizes and arrange them in a row. Surround the first circle with smaller circles while the other one with larger circles. See how do you perceive the sizes of the two identical central circles? The first one will appear larger than the other one. It is an illusion of comparative size perception.
4. Fraser Spiral Illusion
What do you think this image is? It looks like a spiral, doesn’t it? Well, it is just a false spiral. The overlapping arcs make you think it is a spiral whereas, in reality, it is just a series of circles. Trace one arc with your finger and you may be able to decipher the figure.
5. Hermann Grid Illusion
Do you see grey blobs on the intersection of this grid? Now, stare hard at those blobs and they will disappear. It is one of the cool optical illusions that look quite mysterious. It is created when you make a white grid on a black background. This illusion was reported by Ludimar Hermann in 1870.
6. Hering Illusion
In the image above, aren’t those vertical lines bent? Well, this is what it looks like, but it is not actually the reality. The two lines are parallel to each other, but they look bent because of the lined pattern on the background. These two lines also create a false perception of depth. This illusion was reported by the German physiologist ElwadHering. You can try to create this cool optical illusion yourself by making this figure.
7. Isometric Illusion
Well, this is the most common type of illusion that we get to see dead often. In this illusion, the figure appears to be both inside corner and outside corner, whatever you wish to perceive. This type of illusion is created when you create a basic cube drawing on paper. Looking at this image, you may have alternating visions of an inside cube and an outside cube.
8. Jastrow Illusion
In the image above, the lower object appears to be larger than the upper one. However, it is only an illusion and a false perception of size; these two objects are exactly identical to each other. This is one of the cool optical illusions that are created because of the particular shape of these objects. It was first discovered by Joseph Jastrow, an American psychologist.
9. Kanizsa Triangle
In the above illusion, you can see a white upside down triangle on top of the black one. However, this is just a false perception and no such triangle is actually drawn. It was one of the common optical illusions and was reported by Gaetano Kanizsa.
10. Motion Illusion
Have you ever had this kind of image as your screensaver on the computer? Did you always think it had some moving effect? Well, that’s just an illusion that makes you think the image is moving while it is just static. It is created because of the effects of different colors contrasts and shape positions. This is quite a cool optical illusion.
These are some cool optical illusions that are devilishly tricky. You will surely need to stare at them long and hard to decipher them.