Tilting Table Optical Illusion

Check out the Optical Illusion below.

You all know that if it did tilt down to the right that it would probably not be displayed here in this gallery of illusions.

Even though we all know that all horizontal lines in the image below are perfectly level with the bottom of the screen and parallel to each other there is still a strong optical illusion that the top platform tilts down to the right.

My sister pointed out that an easy way to see that they are all parallel to each other is to look at the image from the left side of the screen.

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Pennywise Illusion

Here is an illusion of a different type.

I was talking to a friend of mine that has taken up coin collecting rather late in life. He figures it will be cheaper then getting married again. Anyways he went into a coin dealer he knows to talk shop and came across an interesting tidbit.

According to his coin dealer 1972 pennies are significantly more valuable than 1932 pennies.

Now I know that I am a layman and know absolutely nothing about this hobby but this doesn't seem right to me. Can any of you explain to me why this might be?

One answer that made sense to me can be found here.

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Pacman Optical Illusion

This is an amazing optical illusion.

I found this illusion on several sites on the internet. One semi-popular link farm spent 6 pages of comments discussing this optical illusion. Many were confused about what this optical illusion was all about so let's start off with the following. (If all goes well you might see something like the small image to the right).

1. The below image is an animated gif file.
2. The image is composed of 12 frames, each frame has 11 purple dots on a gray background.
3. These frames are designed so it looks as if one dot is removed at a time progressing clockwise.
4. There is no green dot in this image at all.
5. There is no green dot in this image at all.
6. There is no green dot in this image at all.
   

Stare at the center cross, you will notice a green dot start going around the circle. As you continue to stare the green dot will appear to consume the purple dots until all that is left is the green dot circling the cross, then the purple dots will reappear one by one until they are all visible again.

Jeremy L Hinton
Copyright 2004
Used w/permission

Simply put the reason you see the green dot is because that is the afterimage (or negative) of magenta.

For a more thorough explanation of how this optical illusion works go here.

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Pope or Devil Optical Illusion

The recent installation of Pope Benedict XVI gave rise to numerous stories in newspapers across the world. There were literally thousands of photos used by various news services.

Imagine the surprise of many faithful Catholics in New York when they saw this AP wire service photo used in amNew York newspaper.

In this photo, due to the optical illusion of horns coming out of the Pope's head it is hard to tell if this is a man of God or possibly a stooge of the devil. Needless to say many people took time to write the newspaper and let them know that they weren't happy by this illusion.

The newspaper printed the below two letters they received and an apology to anyone who may have been offended by this optical illusion.

One of my readers sent me the bottom picture but for the life of me I can't find the email anywhere. If you sent this to me leave me a comment so I can thank you properly.

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Coca-Cola 600 Optical Illusion

One of the readers (Andy Marsh) of Optical Illusions Etc... was at the Cola-Cola 600 NASCAR race a few weekends back. While there he saw something amazing.

Yes, I know Jimmy Johnson's win at the end was an amazing finish, but that was no optical illusion or was it? I mean it is "Lowes Motor Speedway" and Jimmy Johnson is sponsored by "Lowes, this was his third straight win of the Coca-Cola 600. I think this might need further investigation, but I digress.

What Andy saw was a woman prior to the race some how climb up a 200 foot pole. He noted the amazing feat. Later he saw them disassembling the pole, during this process he realized it wasn't a pole at all, but in fact was a ladder viewed from the side. He took the below photo and sent it to me. Thanks Andy.

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Sunset Optical Illusion

I was surfing the vast wasteland of blogs a couple of weeks back, looking for optical illusions when I came across this sunset. It was included in a post titled Standing 'O'. This was one of those days when those gathered to watch the sunset were rewarded with a beauty.

James writes:

"As the sun slipped below the horizon, something happened that I have yet to experience again. The spectators who had gathered broke into applause."

At this time I pondered what coast this was on? Where was this beautiful sunset experienced?

Standing 'O'
Copyright 2005 James Jordan
Used w/permission

I saw the tall masted ships and thought it might be a inlet on the United States west coast, maybe this was on Florida's west coast?

I have seen similar sunsets from Key west past the piers with the ships tied up. There were many days in Key west when those that gathered to witness the beauty of a sunset broke into applause.

It might not even be in the states... maybe Australia, wait a minute I remember earlier photos on this blog being taken in Bermuda.

At this point I hit the back key on my browser so I could read the post (you see I had enlarged the photo immediately upon coming across it).

I was very surprised when I found out where this was taken. This image presented to me the optical illusion of something that wasn't there, similar to Kanizsa's Triangle optical illusion only instead of seeing a triangle that wasn't there I was envisioning a place/land that was implied even though we don't see it. Reality was different then the wanderings of my mind, beautiful, but different.

The link to this specific post isn't working but go here and scroll down to Tuesday, June 14th for the answer.

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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor - Justice William Rehnquist Optical Illusion

Occasionally something in the news jars my memory. Sandra Day O'Conner announced her retirement today. This caused me to remember that this optical illusion was laying around my hard drive.

Here we have an optical illusion of two justices of the Supreme court. On the left is Justice Rehnquist, but if you turn the image on it's head we get Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

I don't know who created this gem, but would very much like to give them credit. If anyone knows please leave a comment. Meanwhile as with everything on this site the copyright remains with the original creator.

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