# What the heck is the Wikipedia background image? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840 "2007-11-09T22:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mushbrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@Mushbrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mushbrain)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/21 "2007-11-10T16:41:27Z")
[QUOTE=Montgomery0] Okay, it is definitely a book, but which book is it? šŸ˜ƒ [/QUOTE] Seriously, Iā€™ve wondered about this myself. Would be an interesting factoid to know which book they used. [QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] This to me is the interesting part. It seems that if you donā€™t immediately recognize it as a book, your mind begins to grapple with what it \*could \*be, and will shoot off down a wrong track from which itā€™s difficult to come back. [/QUOTE] This illusion is the perfect example then: [http://www.moillusions.com/2007/01/sometimes-book-isnt-just-book.html](http://www.moillusions.com/2007/01/sometimes-book-isnt-just-book.html) Personally, Iā€™d prefer the ā€˜wrong trackā€™ any day. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/22 "2007-11-10T16:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Mushbrain] Seriously, Iā€™ve wondered about this myself. Would be an interesting factoid to know which book they used. ā€¦ [/QUOTE] If you look at the right hand side, the book appears to have those colored section indicators on the edge of the pages like a dictionary or an encyclopedia, which makes sense. Iā€™m sure thereā€™s some proper term for them, which somebody is going to supply. ---
**Author:** ![bonitahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7993a0/32.png) [@bonitahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonitahi)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/23 "2007-11-10T17:57:09Z")
Hmm. I see a large cigar. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/24 "2007-11-10T19:58:58Z")
Donā€™t feel bad - I just figured out that the [Saturn logo](http://www.cars-directory.net/articles/saturn/Saturn-Logo-logo.jpg) is the planet. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/25 "2007-11-10T20:08:54Z")
Itā€™s a sailboat! ---
**Author:** ![Hint\_Kt\_x\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hint\_Kt\_x\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hint_Kt_x_P)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/26 "2007-11-10T20:59:55Z")
Itā€™s the Great Wall of China, with the road running up to the crest and a couple of tower areas. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/27 "2007-11-10T21:22:02Z")
[QUOTE=Donā€™t fight the hypothetical] Donā€™t feel bad - I just figured out that the [Saturn logo](http://www.cars-directory.net/articles/saturn/Saturn-Logo-logo.jpg) is the planet. :smack: [/QUOTE] Donā€™t feel badā€“I never knew the [Subaru logo](http://www.subaruparts.us/Subaru_Logo_Vert_CLR.jpg) represented the [Pleiades](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/M45map.jpg), until an astronomer told me. (_Subaru_ is the Japanese name for the Pleiades.) ---
**Author:** ![ThirdCultureKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@ThirdCultureKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThirdCultureKid)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/28 "2007-11-10T21:26:58Z")
Ohmigod! Itā€™s a book! I have been wondering about this for the longest time, and I canā€™t believe I missed itā€¦ I feel a need to go pound my head against the wall. ---
**Author:** ![wendigo1974](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@wendigo1974](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wendigo1974)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/29 "2007-11-10T21:38:06Z")
I always saw it as a cloud with eminating sunrays which were illumintating a larger cloud mass. Iā€™m suprised it is actually just an open book. Ooh and the Fed Ex arrow thing ā€¦ now I see it, now I donā€™t If you do intend on using an arrow would it not make more sense to make it more obvious. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/30 "2007-11-10T21:46:25Z")
[QUOTE=wendigo1974] If you do intend on using an arrow would it not make more sense to make it more obvious. [/QUOTE] There are many logos with ā€œobviousā€ arrows, and theyā€™re just so mundane compared with Fedex. Same thing with Wikipedia. What if they just used an ā€œobviousā€ picture of a book? ---
**Author:** ![wendigo1974](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@wendigo1974](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wendigo1974)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/31 "2007-11-10T22:15:21Z")
True, then again I never got the meaning of the [British Rail logo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BR-logo.svg) until it was pointed out to me. Maybe I have an arrow-recognition deficency or I just donā€™t look too hard at company logos ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/32 "2007-11-10T22:25:31Z")
[QUOTE=Mushbrain] This illusion is the perfect example then: [http://www.moillusions.com/2007/01/sometimes-book-isnt-just-book.html](http://www.moillusions.com/2007/01/sometimes-book-isnt-just-book.html) Personally, Iā€™d prefer the ā€˜wrong trackā€™ any day. šŸ™‚ [/QUOTE] Or the ā€œright rack.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/33 "2007-11-11T03:54:07Z")
I always thought it was a mountainside, with rays of light coming from it. [QUOTE=panache45] An open book. How can anybody not see it? [/QUOTE] The reason I was never able to see it was because I never saw the right edge of the page. Thank you, **yabob** for showing me the entire picture. On every pc Iā€™ve used, the picture is much larger, so most of it gets cut off. The center spine of the book is only slightly to the left of the center of the screen, so those ā€œpage edgesā€ at the right side of the picture would be about two feet to the right of my monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/34 "2007-11-11T03:57:11Z")
I never saw the FedEx arrow until now. Youā€™re talking about the space between the E and the X, right? If so, I think it is so subtle as to be useless. But thatā€™s just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/35 "2007-11-11T16:38:13Z")
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima] I still donā€™t see a book :(. Looks like a mountain with rays of awesome to me. [/QUOTE] Iā€™m with you there - I always thought it was a mountain, as well. Now that Iā€™ve read this thread, I can _barely_ discern how it _might_ be a book, but Iā€™m not really getting it. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/36 "2007-11-11T16:44:53Z")
[QUOTE=HeyHomie] Now that Iā€™ve read this thread, I can _barely_ discern how it _might_ be a book, but Iā€™m not really getting it. [/QUOTE] Did you see the link in post #9? ---
**Author:** ![unlimitlessly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e95f7d/32.png) [@unlimitlessly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unlimitlessly)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/37 "2007-11-13T21:23:50Z")
If you said a book, youā€™ve got the wrong answer. Itā€™s clearly one of the other answers, the Great Wall of China. Iā€™ve located the exact angle view here for comparison. [http://www.lehsd.k12.nj.us/users/dupuis/images/Great\_Wall\_of\_China.jpg](http://www.lehsd.k12.nj.us/users/dupuis/images/Great_Wall_of_China.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/38 "2007-11-13T21:45:11Z")
Itā€™s not a bookā€¦ Thatā€™s a space station! ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/39 "2007-11-13T23:02:28Z")
I like the [Arabic](http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/) Wikipedia background better. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840/40 "2007-11-13T23:02:45Z")
[QUOTE=unlimitlessly] Itā€™s clearly one of the other answers, the Great Wall of China. [/QUOTE] The proof is that you can see it from [space](http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwall.asp). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-wikipedia-background-image/425840.md?page=3)