Fork Optical Illusions

Devil's Fork

March 1965 cover of MAD Magazine by artist Norman Mingo. MAD introduced the figure as the MAD "Poiuyt." MAD magazine bought the figure from one who claimed that it was original, but MAD soon found out that the figure had been previously published.

No one is sure who originated this optical illusion. It seems to have surfaced in various publications in 1964, including the American Journal of Psychology in a paper published by D.H. Schuster. Besides being known as the MAD Poiuyt it is known by many names The Impossible Trident, The Devils Fork and Three Stick Clevis being three of them.

Fork Illusion
Copyright Syd Mannion
Used w/permission

Being aware of the various renditions of the illusion at the top of this page Syd decided to create the above photo. He states,

I wanted to give this theoretical diagrammatic idea a "real" life existence. I entered it into a professional photographic exhibition where it won first prize.

Well done Syd!


The below image is unlike the two above. It is an actual picture of a fork. Gaja posted the following comment with this image,

"Does anyone else have trouble seeing which way this fork goes?"

Copyright Gaja J Snover
Used w/permission

So do see what Gaja saw?

I see three things with this fork.

Right off I see a fork and can tell exactly which way it bends.

The second thing I see is a weird bend down. This makes the fork appear to be abnormally bent to its right.

The third thing I notice is the same effect that Gaja noticed. As I scan the image there are times where the fork appears to bend in the opposite direction. Gaja wasn't attempting to create an illusion but did notice it later after reviewing his images.

Thank you Gaja and Syd for allowing me to present these two fork illusions here.