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Welcome to 123 Optical Illusions. An archive of illusions that play tricks with your brain. Many of the images you will find here demonstrate visual phenomena, and optical or visual illusions. You will learn about the complexities of the human eye first hand.
- Parallax effect optical illusion. This IRL optical illusion manages to look like a 3D render and a web design effect all at the same time, making it the ultimate illusion for creative types.
- The expanding black hole optical illusion. Optical illusions are always pretty mind-blowing, but not many come close to this one that can show you the future - well almost.
- The hypnotic circle optical illusion. Created by Brusspup, the first optical illusion in our list is a bit of a geometric trick. The white circles appear to form a circular shape that rolls around the inside of the circumference of the red circle.
- The spinning vortex optical illusion. One type of optical illusion that we can't get enough of are those that appear to be moving but they're actually still images.
- What Is An Optical Illusion?
- Famous Illusions
- Illusory Motion Illusions
- Pattern Illusions
- Color Illusions
- Literal Illusions
Optical illusions are visuals that tend to be deceptive to the eye and brain. This is based on numerous factors including varying colors, patterns, lights, and more! When looking at these images what we see gets sent to our brains, and a false perception is created as the image our brain processes isn’t actually what is in front of us. Different pe...
Cafe wall illusion
Barsukov Vladimir/shutterstock These lines appear to be angled up or down, but the horizontal lines are actually all parallel. Need proof? Try covering the top and bottom of one line of squares with a piece of paper. No slants to be found!
Muller-Lyer illusion
Peter Hermes Furian/shutterstock Which horizontal line is shorter: the top or the bottom? Trick question—they’re the same size, even though your mind perceives the one with outward wings to be longer. While these optical illusions seem hard to figure out give yourself a break and check out 20 rebus puzzlesthat are almost impossible to solve!
Zöllner illusion
Courtesy Lenstore Are these long diagonal lines parallel? They sure don’t look it, but they are! Removing the smaller “stitch”-like lines shows the truth about this optical illusion.
Spinning seeds
Your eyes will keep jumping to the spinning sunbursts of seeds—even though they’re all staying still. Give your eyes a break and solve 11 of the most famous riddlesin history.
Rotating circles
When your eyes dart to one seemingly spinning circle, the others around them appear to start rotating. Your eyes don’t know where to look! Find out what a red spot on your eyemeans.
Hypnotizing
Looks like the background is spinning around a circle, but both are staying completely still. Boost your brainpower even more with these brain games.
Hidden message
Lose your focus a bit (seriously—try to go a little cross-eyed) and you’ll spot a secretmessage hidden in the black dots. Take a closer look, though, and the words will disappear from sight.
Innie or outie?
Is the smallest point of this black and white illusion pointing in or sticking out? It’s anyone’s guess due to the contrasting lines.
All about perspective
Can you figure out which of these windows is bigger? Not only are they the exact same size, but their tops and bottoms are also directly in line with each other. Talk about a new perspective! Keep challenging the way you view things by looking at 25 photos of everyday things taken from a side you rarely see.
How many colors?
Courtesy Lenstore Can you figure out how many colors are in this image in total? Did you guess four? Turns out it’s only three! The square in the upper right of this image looks like it contains blue and pink stripes; the one in the lower left seems to have green and orange ones. But, believe it or not, the “blue” and “green” are actually the exact same color! RELATED: Fewer Than 1 Percent of People Can Pass This Color Test. Can You?
Gray area
Courtesy Lenstore Which of the labeled squares is lighter in color: A or B? This one’s quite the trick: They’re actually the same color! It’s just the shadow of the green cylinder that makes them look like different colors. Speaking of, here’s the science behind people who have different colored eyes.
Pair of pears
Courtesy Lenstore Which of these pears is lighter in color: the one on the left or the one on the right? Neither, these two pears are exactly the same color! Grab a friend or two and see if they can figure it out and when you’re done solve some of the most challenging jigsaw puzzlesyou can buy. Courtesy Lenstore
Rubin Vase
Vase or face? This is an example of a Rubin Vase, an #opticalillusionnamed after the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, who first developed the trick. Next time you visit us, come check out The Queen’s Speech- a 3D representation of this illusion! #RubinVase #EdgarRubin — Camera Obscura & World of Illusions (@camobscura) November 10, 2018 Upon first glance do you see the figure of a vase or the side profile of two faces looking at one another? It all depends on the color you choose to focus on....
Boring Figure
— neurocurry (@neurocurry) November 4, 2018 There’s certainly nothing boring about this optical illusion except that it’s named after its artist Edwin Boring. What do you see when you first take a good look at this image? One can either see a young woman looking away or the side profile of an elderly woman. You can see both however our brains can only focus on one at a time. If these optical illusions have your mind going in full gear, this Mensa quizwill surely continue the momentum.
Jan 27, 2012 · Today’s compilation displays 25 crazy and mindboggling optical illusion pictures. Each of these pictures comprise of hidden figures in them. Test your mind and see if you can find out all of them. All the best! Optical Illusion 1: How many faces do you see in this painting? Optical Illusion 2: Count the number of people in this picture!
- Troxler's Effect. Stare at the center of the fuzzy image above without blinking. After a few seconds, what do you see? Does the image start to fade away?
- Chubb Illusion (luminance) The Chubb illusion was first discovered by Charles Chubb and colleagues Sperling and Solomon in the late 1980s when they experimented with perceived contrast by placing low-contrast visual objects on various backgrounds.
- Checker Shadow Illusion (contrast) In this famous visual illusion, the square marked with an A looks a lot darker than B, right? But in reality, they are the same shade of grey.
- Lilac Chaser (color) After staring at the cross in the center of this image for 20 seconds or so, you will start to see either a green dot running around the circle or a green dot circling around, seeming to erase the magenta dots on the grey background.
Optical illusions are images that trick your brain into seeing things that are not real. Learn how they work and try out different types of illusions with examples and explanations.
Dec 14, 2023 · Optical illusions are visual images or videos that trick your eyes and brain into seeing something different from reality. See examples of spinning circles, zigzag effects, tunnels, makeup, and more.
