Top 25 Optical Illusions on the Web

by Peter Mychalcewycz, posted Sep 17th 2008 at 7:25PM

Top 25 Optical Illusions On the Web 23
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Most of you have looked and/or fretted over optical illusions at some point in your life. A select few have even had a sleepless night over particularly difficult ones. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Double meanings, motion-induced blindness, and mind bending perspective distortion just to name a few. Here, we have compiled a list of some of our favorite illusions on the Web. Some are simple and thought provoking. Others, well, they just make you thankful that you are sitting down. Now take a break and blow your mind.

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How Many F's

We got this wrong the first time and we aren't ashamed to admit it. We hope you have better luck. Count how many F's there are in the illusion. We doubt you will get it right, but we wish you the best. Honestly.

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Mona Lisa

The most famous face in the world gets turned on her head....literally. Activate the pictures and watch da Vinci's famous muse transform. The simplicity of this illusion is what grabbed our attention. Well, that and it involves the Mona-freakin-Lisa.

From: http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/mona/mona.html

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Face/Candlestick Illusion

This is an image of two people about to make out. Or, it's a nice all-white candlestick. If you're a people person, you're likely to think it's the former, whereas aesthetically-minded domestic types will want to see an inanimate object perfect for the dinner table. Either way, those folks sure have big foreheads and that candlestick hold sure is awfully wide!

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Terror Subterannea

Creepy little creatures of seemingly different sizes run through an underground tunnel in a maniacal attempt to do nothing in particular. They look so different... But are they?

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Elephant Legs

How many legs does this thing have? Where do they start... or finish...? Our heads hurt... It's your turn.

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Motion Induced Blindness

Motion, your mind, and a myriad of shapes team up to rob you of your sight! Simply stare at the dot in the middle of the screen and see what happens. Don't worry, there are no lasting side effects... We think.

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I am bored.com trippy

If you have a strong stomach and a minute to kill, this is the best of the bunch. Stare at the screen for the designated amount of time, and then look away. It's a like it's the 1960s all over again. If that reference is lost on you, well, just make sure you are sitting down when you try this.

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This silhouette wins the award for coolest thing we've seen all day -- and it's not just because the tiny dancer above is in the buff. This is a little test that will tell you whether the left or right hemisphere of your brain is more dominant.

Instead of concentrating on her chest, concentrate on the woman's movement. If you see her spinning clockwise, that means you're using the right side, or more creative side of your brain. If she appears to be moving counter-clockwise, then that means the left side, or more logical side of your think muscle is superior.

At the Switched office, some of us see her going clockwise, others see her spinning counter-clockwise. At least one of us claims to see both, while another one of us opened this animation in Adobe ImageReady in order to isolate the frames to see if there's any direction-changing funny business going on. There isn't.

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Look at squares 'A' and 'B'. 'A' might appear darker, but, in fact, it's not.

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Moon Illusion

This is a beautiful illusion that provokes the viewer to ponder the relationship between reality and aesthetic beauty in art and life in general. The moon looks beautiful doesn't it? Check it out. If you're anything like us, you'll be instantly nostalgic for a small French village that you've never been to.

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Barber Pole

We've seen this one plenty of times, but we're still baffled at how a series of diagonally-oriented parallel lines moving down a rectangle end up looking like a 3-D barber pole. Just think of all the money haircutters could save by using one of these instead of a real barber pole.












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