These optical illusions will freak you out! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most complex and sophisticated photos, videos, or graphics that could play visual tricks on your brain.
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00:00 White and gold or blue and black? What colors do you see?
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most complex and sophisticated
00:09 photos, videos or graphics that could play visual tricks on your brain.
00:13 Number 10 - The Penrose Stairs
00:23 Imagine going up a flight of stairs, only to end up back in your original position.
00:29 Such is the impossible situation of the Penrose Stairs.
00:33 Popularized by father and son team Lionel and Roger Penrose,
00:37 this optical illusion depicts a two-dimensional stairwell consisting of four 90-degree turns.
00:42 Much like a snake biting its own tail, the steps are presented in a continuous loop
00:47 and can either appear to be ascending or descending depending on how you view it.
00:51 As such, anyone who climbs them never gets higher or lower, but returns to where they began.
00:58 This illusion manipulates perspective and geometry,
01:01 creating a visual enigma that only gets more confusing the more you look at it.
01:05 Number 9 - Color Saturation Illusion
01:13 What do you see when you look at this image? Three blue circles of different shades, perhaps?
01:19 What if we told you that all three rings were, in fact, the exact same shade of blue?
01:25 This illusion, created by the British optical retailer Lensdor,
01:28 exploits the phenomenon of visual contrast to manipulate your perception of the colors.
01:33 This is because your brain factors in other secondary information,
01:38 such as the surroundings and backgrounds in order to interpret the color of an object.
01:42 If you're still not sold that the circles are the same shade,
01:45 the truth is revealed when you transfer them from the multi-shade backdrop onto a white one.
01:50 Mind-blowing, right?
01:52 Number 8 - The Pina-Brelstaff Rotating Rings
01:55 For this illusion to come to life, follow these steps.
01:59 First, focus on the small dot in the center for a few seconds.
02:02 Then, pull your head closer to your screen.
02:05 You should notice that the rings begin to rotate.
02:08 Take your head back and you'll see that they are now moving in the opposite direction.
02:12 But weren't they stationary just a moment ago?
02:15 Named after Bainjo Pina and Gavin J. Brelstaff,
02:18 this illusion features concentric rings made up of strategically placed lines
02:22 that create a sense of implied motion due to their shapes and arrangement.
02:26 The deception is possible because the apparent motion occurs in your peripheral vision,
02:31 rather than your direct line of sight.
02:32 Number 7 - The Kiniza Triangle
02:35 This classic optical illusion tricks our brains into perceiving a white,
02:40 equilateral triangle in the center of the image.
02:43 But in reality, no such triangle exists.
02:46 Named after Italian psychologist Gaetano Kiniza, who popularized the phenomenon,
02:51 this illusion demonstrates our brain's ability to connect the dots,
02:54 even when the information presented is incomplete.
02:57 The Kiniza Triangle features three Pac-Man-like figures,
03:00 with their open mouths aligned in such a way that they form the edges of the shape.
03:04 Interestingly, this phantom triangle also appears to be brighter than the background,
03:09 despite being equally lit.
03:10 This goes to show how our brains can make assumptions
03:13 and fill in gaps based on our own expectations.
03:16 The brain ignores the gaps and completes the figure itself.
03:19 Number 6 - The Phantom Queen
03:21 Crafted by British magician Matt Pritchard,
03:24 this simple yet clever illusion claimed top honors at the 2021 Best Illusion of the Year contest.
03:31 It ingeniously relies on two pretty basic elements - a hand-drawn chessboard and a mirror.
03:37 On one side, the board is populated only by black chess pieces.
03:41 But something seems amiss.
03:43 In the mirror reflection, there exists an illusory white queen.
03:47 So how does Pritchard make the queen disappear from the real-life board?
03:51 The answer lies in your perspective.
03:53 While cleverly deceptive, this illusion can only be viewed from a particular angle,
03:58 as it utilizes an anamorphic camouflage to conceal the queen.
04:02 A slight shift in perspective and the position of the precious queen is betrayed.
04:06 Number 5 - The Spinning Dancer
04:08 Chances are you've encountered this perplexing clip before.
04:13 It surfaced in 2003 thanks to Japanese web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara,
04:17 and quickly gained popularity.
04:20 Yet despite the passage of time, it remains just as confusing.
04:24 The illusion depicts a dancer spinning on one leg.
04:27 What makes it so intriguing is that some see the figure twirling in the clockwise direction,
04:32 while others see a counterclockwise movement.
04:35 Initially hailed as a test of left or right brain dominance,
04:38 it's essentially a visual challenge that exploits the absence of depth and perspective cues.
04:43 As such, your brain does what it does best - fills in the gaps.
04:47 We don't know about you, but staring at this clip for too long just makes us feel dizzy.
04:51 Number 4 - The Scintillating Grid Illusion
04:54 Devised in 1994, this phenomenon builds upon the Hermann grid illusion,
05:00 which consists of black squares on a white background that produce gray blobs at each intersection.
05:06 The scintillating grid illusion, however, takes a slightly different approach.
05:10 It takes a black background and overlays it with gray lines that intersect both vertically and horizontally.
05:16 At each intersection is a tiny white disk,
05:19 over which black dots seem to appear and disappear rapidly when you look at the image.
05:23 This creates the scintillating illusion that lends its name to the phenomenon.
05:27 Rest assured though, this is just a picture, not a gif, and there are no black dots here.
05:33 It's just your mind playing tricks on you.
05:35 Number 3 - The Jastrow Illusion
05:38 Take a long look at these two objects placed next to each other.
05:42 Surely the one on the bottom is larger than the other, right?
05:45 Well, if you've been following, you should know that you are wrong.
05:49 Both images are of the exact same size, which you will realize once they're stacked on top of each other.
05:55 Known as the Jastrow illusion,
05:57 it was first defined by the Polish-American psychologist Joseph Jastrow over a hundred years ago.
06:02 Scientists aren't exactly sure why this illusion occurs.
06:05 Nonetheless, the brain is automatically tricked into perceiving their sizes differently
06:10 due to the juxtaposition of the shorter side of one object with the longer side of the other.
06:15 Number 2 - The Motion Illusion
06:18 This is yet another mesmerizing visual trick that exploits our brain's tendency
06:22 to perceive motion where there actually is none.
06:24 Unlike the Pina Brelstaff rotating rings,
06:28 this illusion doesn't require you to focus your eyes on any particular point for them to start moving.
06:32 These images deceive our brain through a combination of contrasting colors, patterns, and arrangements.
06:38 Specifically, the use of black and white in the shading of these shapes
06:42 assists in the imagined movement.
06:44 In addition to motion, it also creates an illusion of depth,
06:48 compelling us to interpret the images as three-dimensional when they are, in fact, flat.
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07:07 Number 1 - The Impossible Trident
07:11 Just as the name implies, this optical illusion is impossible.
07:16 Also known as the Devil's Tuning Fork,
07:19 the Impossible Trident was created by American psychologist D.H. Schuster
07:24 and gained prominence in the 1960s.
07:26 At first glance, this figure is bound to leave you deeply confused.
07:30 It consists of three prongs at one end that appear to originate from two prongs at the other end,
07:36 a feat that defies all logic.
07:38 Not only that, the prongs start out as rectangular before transforming into cylindrical bases.
07:45 The lines of the trident are drawn in such a way that they distort our perspective and perception of depth,
07:51 successfully tricking our brains into believing in the impossible.
07:54 Which of these illusions left you utterly perplexed?
07:58 Sound off in the comments below.
08:00 I am the same size here as I am over here.
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08:12 [Music]