God Creates the Sun and the Moon
(hint: the moon we're referring to here is on the far
right), Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo God made two great
lights- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser
light to govern the night, Genesis 1:16.
Inspired words written with a bit of poetic license or the
writings of one fooled by an illusion? Like the author of
Genesis long ago, we have all been captivated by
illusions. Welcome to this website,
I hope you enjoy.
How Optical Illusions Work: Principle 1
The whole in my head. Our mind constantly attempts to make sense out of the big picture. We tend to see the whole more than the parts.
The 8 pizza boxes from
Diamond Jim's can help me illustrate the point. When the pizza boxes are
stacked on top of each other, the individual pizza
box
loses its form to any number of larger patterns that can be
seen-
As you gaze at the figure
to the left, your mind seeks out patterns for the picture as
a whole. Do you see the white
triangles on the black surface or do you see the black
triangles on the white surface? How about squares within
squares? Looking from the lower
left to the upper right, can you see "shimmering" large
triagles? How about a bunch of
black and white bow-ties that make the backgound look white
in the lower left and black in the upper right. And my favorite effect,
the 3-D cubby holes, looking either up to the left or down
to the right.
Explanation:
The lightwaves of information that enter our eyes are organized into a "gestalt," a German word for whole, form or configuration. Gestalt Psychology began in the early 1900s with a man named Max Wertheimer and a toy called a stroboscope. This popular child's toy would project still images in rapid sequence that would give the images the appearance of moving, much like our movies today. Max Wertheimer and his friends began working on other experiments involving optical illusions. They came to realize something quite significant. Not everything can be understood by taking it apart- as the field of psychology and other sciences had become accustomed to doing. Some things are perhaps better understood, in fact only perceived, when taken as a whole. This, of course, not only applies to optical illusions, but in all of life. One of Max Wertheimer's most popular books entitled Productive Thinking was based upon interviews with people renown for their problem solving abilities. One of productive thinkers interviewed was a friend and fellow refugee to the United States, Albert Einstein.
How Optical Illusions Work: Principle 2
2. I can't see a thing without hue. You'll have to get some paper and scissors for this one. Print off the figure below. Somehow make a top out of it where the figure spins at least a few revolutions per seconds. Colors will appear!
This is a work in progress. More to come in days ahead.
Thanks,
Kevin Sumrall,
Montgomery College