Super Mario optical illusion
Sometimes the best optical illusions take us by surprise, and this mind-bending Mario illusion has certainly ruffled some feathers online. If you’re an optical illusion fan you might be familiar with the staircase illusion where it’s difficult to tell which direction the object is heading. Place your bets, is Mario ascending or descending? The internet can’t seem to decide.
The expanding black hole optical illusion
Optical illusions are always pretty mind-blowing, but not many come close to this one that can show you the future – well almost. Viewers who stare into the centre of the black hole will instantly begin to see it expanding towards them, but in fact, the image is not moving at all.
In actuality, it’s just the viewer’s brain firing back what it thinks is happening and predicting what we’ll see. According to a report in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal, over 86 per cent of people who look at the illusion see the shape expanding. Are you one of them?
The spinning vortex optical illusion
One type of optical illusion that we can’t get enough of are those that appear to be moving but they’re actually still images. These are examples of what are known as physiological optical illusions – they’re caused by the over stimulation of the brain’s senses as a result fo the eye seeing too much colour, light, movement or dimensions to be able to process.
With its purple and yellow vortex-like design, this one’s hypnotic, but we promise it’s not a gif or a video. It’s a completely still image. What happens is that the combination of the different patterns, light and levels tricks your mind into thinking it’s moving when you let your eyes wander over the design. Concentrate on the very centre of the image and you should be able to see it stop.
How many horses are there?
Another equine-themed illusion, this one has been confusing viewers since the 1970s. The design begs the question, how many horses are in the painting? And despite how many times we counted the horses, we never got the answer that the artist, Bev Doolittle, revealed as correct.
This is an optical illusion of a different kind. It’s what’s known as a literal optical illusion since it was created intentionally by the artist to hide or disguise things in plain view, without relying on our minds to trick us. We love it all the same.
The hidden tiger optical illusion
From small cats to big cats. This is another clever illustrated optical illusion from an artist. Can you spot the hidden tiger in the picture? No, not the first tiger you see, the one that’s showing us its teeth. The hidden tiger. We promise it’s there lurking there in the image, and you’ll kick yourself when you see it. This one is also a literal optical illusion, but one with an amusing cognitive element that made us smile.
