The Ames window illusion

Just saw this and it is making my brain spin.  Skip ahead to around the 2 min point to see it in action.

That's crazy! LOL

Oh fun! I'm going to make one... me and mom are doing brain exercises, she needs her head messed with!  :D

And if you turned it off too quickly, check out the bit with a pen at the 3:00 part...

So, my kids and I watched it. We all got headaches. Then we watched



and got even more headaches.

Then we started making our own Ames Window using this printable. This counts as science for homeschooling, right?

Mike, that’s a pretty cool trick.  

I can let you in on a little secret—this is WAY more impressive in 2D than 3D.

How do you mean Eric?

In 3D, it is possible to see depth and better track of which end is which.  In 2D seeing depth is basically impossible which is why the figure seems to reverse directions.  In 3D, if you can keep track of which end is which, it is possible to see the actual rotation.  It will still seem to switch directions when not concentrating.

Either way it is pretty cool!

We used the printable I linked above and made one here at home. (If anyone else makes one, my tip is to color in all the grey areas BLACK. The illusion works much better that way!). We found that when we had both eyes open, we could use the paralelex of our eyes to tell which side was closer, and so the illusion didn't work. BUT, if we closed one eye, it looked like in the videos.

In many ways, it's pretty cool to make one at home. You can see how the illusion works in 2D, and doesn't really work in 3D to the same degree. If you use the printable, you'll also find the illusion doesn't work with light grey shaded areas, but is far more impressive with black (or other saturated color) shading.

That’s interesting to know Nicole.  I had not thought of testing by using just one eye, but that is totally consistent with the results you would get by watching on a 2D surface.

Nice Job!