New: We created an animated gif to show you how strong of an illusion this really is! Inspired by the image above, I wanted to show you how you could do this yourself. You can print this out and cut it out, and then try it — It’ll work! It might even be a little more like a puzzle or a magic trick than an optical illusion, but we like it anyway! See for yourself! (If it is not moving, it pauses on the last frame of the animation for 5 seconds. Just wait a few more seconds).
Take awhile to think about how this could possibly work? There is a missing square in the second optical illusion drawing, but the peices are exactly the same! Aren’t they?
Explanation: Actually the shapes in the TOP optical illusion drawing are NOT the same. The two triangles are actually different from each other in each picture. In fact, the graph paper may even be slightly stretched to enhance this optical illusion. The hypotenuse(that’s the diagonal line) of the triangles are actually different. Depending on which picture you are looking at, they slightly bow in and out. In addition, they are spaced a little farther apart, but your eye tends to follow the black lines as if nothing has changed. This might be a great page to print out, and cut with scissors to more carefully study this optical illusion.
But the second illusion, the animated one… the shapes ARE ALMOST the same size. They overlap every so slightly, and it’s enough to make it work. The area of the triangles is just slightly different, but it’s hardly noticeable. Enjoy!
