“25 of the most mind-blowing optical illusions ever posted on the Web”
http://now.msn.com/funny-optical-illusions
All of these photos are fun to study and I can figure out what is weird and why it looks weird for all of them except one. What are we seeing in the second (of 25) picture which looks like a globe of grass?
It looks like a sidewalk chalk drawing. Some of them do amazing things with perspective.
A very good sidewalk chalk drawing. From directly overhead, the “green globe” would be seen as a long green ellipse.
I’m pretty sure that’s just man standing next to a faded oil spot.
ETA: Sorry I looked and posted without reading the last sentence of the OP. I thought you were talking about the first picture.
Yeah, that’s a chalk drawing. A very large chalk drawing. Well, maybe not that large now that I look at it some more.
No, it’s actual dirt and grass. It’s just not the shape you think it is. How A Parisian Artist Created This Stunning Optical Illusion
Aha! See here. It’s a kind of park feature.
Thanks for the video. It’s even more amazing when you see that it is not flat or even a mound, but an irregularly landscaped surface.
Okay, while we’re at it, I can figure out all but one of these:
http://now.msn.com/double-take-photo-gallery-makes-you-look-again
The caption says that number 12 is not a lake. So what is it? Very smooth dirt? Asphalt? Salt flats?
It’s a wall.
It’s a short wall. Flip it in your brain to vertical, not horizontal. The “flare” of the sun reflecting off the water is a bunch of yellowish dry grasses.
Title edited to clarify subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I don’t use the young people’s internet jargon very often, but when I finally “saw” this, I was LOL. Thanks!
Still the most amazing visual illusion I’ve ever seen: the chessboard. Even when you know the trick, it still works.
The most amazing audio illusion I’ve ever seen is the McGurk effect. Again, even when you know what’s happening, you still see the illusion.
This is the first time I’ve encountered this “illusion.” I put that in quotes because it doesn’t seem to work on me. I hear bah regardless of what his mouth appears to be doing. But I’m also a highly verbal person, and my visual/spatial intelligence is pretty poor. Nothing wrong with my eyesight, but I’m not a visual learner. I rely on my ears far more than my eyes… wonder if that makes a difference.
#20 (the rabbit) reminded me of this James Thurber cartoon.
I’ve seen a photo of this from a different angle. It is a lawn with oblong curbs going through it. From any any other angle, it looks quite distorted.
I think it is in Paris, IIRC.
What I like about that one is that the mouseover text for #14 says “woman appears to have biceps”.
I wasn’t aware that that was an unusual condition.
Better yet.
This effect is called (perspectival) anamorphosis, most famously seen in Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors and earliest in da Vinci’s, Leonardo’s Eye.
CMC fnord!