# What is this optical effect called?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-optical-effect-called/428743>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-optical-effect-called/428743 "2007-12-04T03:16:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-optical-effect-called/428743/1 "2007-12-04T03:16:18Z")

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When you’re looking at an image of a very fine striped pattern and you zoom in or out and it looks like they are crisscrossing.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-optical-effect-called/428743/2 "2007-12-04T03:24:48Z")

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Moiré

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**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-optical-effect-called/428743/3 "2007-12-04T04:18:57Z")

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Thats it! Thanks.