# How many colors? (cool optical illusion)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-colors-cool-optical-illusion/500912>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 25, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-colors-cool-optical-illusion/500912 "2009-06-25T05:17:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-colors-cool-optical-illusion/500912/21 "2009-06-25T23:28:40Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Running NoScript? When a page doesn’t seem to work right, that’s always the first thing I check. I allowed the domain and it worked fine.

Yep. And that was it, I’m sure. Rather than mess around with which script is the magic script to allow, I usually just go straight to the IE tab. I like the idea of NoScript, but it’s such a pain the ass.

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**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-colors-cool-optical-illusion/500912/22 "2009-06-25T23:48:53Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> The color illusions drive me nuts. Most illusions I can see through or manipulate once I understand the illusion; I can force myself to see ‘curved’ lines as straight, or flip the cube facing at will, for example. But I _cannot_ make myself see the ‘green’ and ‘blue’, or the ‘light grey’ and ‘dark grey’, as the same colors. When I sample the colors individually, I can see that they’re the same, but in context it’s impossible to bull through the illusion. That makes them special IMO.

I’m not sure you can. Text from the site says, _“The reason they look different colors is because our brain judges the color of an object by comparing it to surrounding colors”_. I’m not so sure this is true. I saved this image to my desktop. The thumbnail clearly looks like 4 colors ([see screen capture here](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3346/3660662627_a8f3cc6916.jpg)).

I think it’s more a case of your mind mixing the colors rather than “judging against” in this case.

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**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-colors-cool-optical-illusion/500912/23 "2009-06-26T01:08:16Z")

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> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> No the ads are the same, they just _look_ different.

_snort_

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