Can we always believe what our eyes tell us?
As you will see when you look at the following images, the simple answer to that is no. Our eyes can and do deceive us, especially when presented with ambiguous or misleading information. It would appear that in order to make sense of something our brain sort of fills in the gaps and presents us with a ‘picture’ that may not be a true representation of the reality. 
Stare at the three vertical dots in the centre of this image for about 30 seconds and then look at a white wall or a white bit of paper or you can even just sit back and close your eyes. What do you see? Don’t be freaked out now!
See if you can count how many legs this elephant has? 
Ok, the idea here is to count how many black dots you can see in the corner of the squares. If you think that sounds easy enough, think again! 
This is a very well known image but what does it say to you? Can you see an old woman or a beautiful young lady? All depends on your perception I suppose. 
All we are looking at here is a simple 2D picture but we don’t see it like that. 
There’s something quite freaky about looking at an image that you know is still but which appears to be moving. Flick your eyes over the image ! 
Funny one this, if you stare at the dot in the centre you will start to see that one or more of the dots round the outside disappear and reappear again as if popping in and out of existence. 
Do you see two oldies looking at each other or are you staring at a young man playing guitar and a young lady with a vase on her head? 
Stare at the dot in the centre of this image for about 20 seconds and then look at a white surface. Amazing! If you blink quickly you should see the colours of the British flag. 
Which horizontal line is the shortest? Your eyes will tell you that it is the first one but they happen to be exactly the same size. 
This one’s a real cracker. Which square is darker in colour, the A or the B? Would you believe it, they are exactly the same shade but your eyes trick you into thinking they are not. Check it out yourself. 
You had better believe it; these lines really are parallel with each other. 
look at the words and reading out the colour of the word and not what the word says. Not as easy as it sounds. 
No, this isn’t an image of two triangles on top of each other surrounded by circles; there are no triangles or circles at all!!! 
Believe it or not, the two orange bars on this image are exactly the same shade. It’s the way they are positioned on the green bars that makes them look different. 
Depending on what your brain decides to tell you, you might see a rabbit or then again, maybe it’s a duck. 
Is it a donkey or a seal? What do your eyes tell you? 
This is a very well known image that you have probably seen before. Do you see two silhouetted faces staring at each other or simply an ornate vase? 
This is another famous image. What do you see in it? Some see an Indian and others see an Eskimo, can you see both? 
Finally, a 2D picture that looks 3D and it’s in motion! Are you able to stop the rollers from moving?
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The chessboard one is great!
I really find it hard to believe that the chess one is the same colour !
so, if they are illusions, and they obviously are, what is real?
There are four dots in the first one. Very cool stuff!
I didn’t believe the checkerboard…I downloaded ColorPic to connfirm and the are both #6B6B6B….very cool!
Hey Fez, when you stare at the dots for 30 seconds and look away, you see an image of Jesus. Just saying.
The letters A and B are the same color. Not the squares.
@ekrajb: Erm, no.
Erm, yes!!
well, no..
LOL !!!!!!!
Dave get a gravatar picture
I have tried , but my computer skills are somewhat lacking in that department ! Please help me oh techy Vlad
Actually lol the checkers one varied between shades of grey.
}
#666666;
#6d6d6d;
#6b6b6b;
{
not so consistant really, best one is jesus.
the actual squares arent the same color….they made an error, it is suppose to question if the letters in those squares are the same color…….someone made an ooops!
Hi Guys thanks for your comments , I see that the checkers board is a point of hot debate !! Please do not personally attack anyone else with your comments or they will be deleted !
amazing. the jesus and the british flag ones a freaky
Rudi says : Re Checkerboard… It’s the squares the letters are on that are the
same colour, open the image in Photoshop to prove it. It’s an excellent example
of relative (or adjacent) values however you care to term it.
(if that doesn’t work, http://i36.tinypic.com/11ql352.png )
Copy pasted the b square next to the a square for all you non believers. It is indeed the square, and not the letter, that is the same color. Weird, isn’t it!
HOLY CRAP THESE ARE AMAZING!
How would it have a chequerboard effect if the light grey and the dark grey were the same colour?? I just don’t get that one, but the others are all very good.
The “light grey” in the shadowed areas and the “dark grey” in the unshadowed areas are exactly the same. If you look at the squares on the edges of light/shadow you can see that they’re two DIFFERENT colours, both in one square. Now. If I take a colour picker tool and draw with that colour between the two squares, you can prove to yourself that they’re the same.
I did this in paint: http://i34.tinypic.com/33u7gix.jpg
Colour picker, paint between the squares, and I added the black lines to isolate the change more.
y’all wrong on the checkers! black and white are shades and NOT colours!
All you see are light waves, which always have a wavelength. Even though rods only detect intensity, all light still has a wavelength and therefore is a COLOR. The only thing that’s not a “color” is true black, because it’s the absence of light and thus has no wavelength.
[...] See more optical illusions here. [...]
For all of you doubting the checkerboard one –
You don’t need photoshop or anything to see that the colors are the same. Just look at it and squint your eyes – you’ll see the colors are identical!
The illusion wouldn’t work if the cylinder wasn’t on the checkerboard. Its shadow darkens the B square, making it identical to the A square in color. But because the shadow also darkens the darker squares around it, you can’t easily tell.
Very good. I haven’t seen some of these before. Thanks.
For the checkerboard one, i actually pulled the image onto my desktop and brought it up in paint, and what do you know, they actually ARE the same color! If I do a straight line of that color connecting them, it looks like a gradient! its creepy!
i LOVE stumbleopon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also checked the chess board and square A and B are both hexidecimal color #6b6b6b… I think it’s because the the squares in between A and be gradually change colors that gives us that illusion also the square on the left of B is alot darker then A or B As for the letters on it for some that thought it was the letters A and B that were the same and nope theyre are about 5 hexidecimal codes that make up the lettering in both and none of the five of each are the same
The “dark square” A is the same colour as the “light square” B, due to the “shadow” of the green cylinder.
This shows that our vision system understands that the shadow is a shadow, and decides that all the light squares are the same color and all the dark squares are the same (but darker than light squares) color.
But, if you press the “Stamp” key on your keyboard, then open “Paint” and do a “Paste”, try to cut the “A” marked square and overlap it on the “B” marked square… they are the same color
The “dark square” A is the same color as the “light square” B, due to the “shadow” of the green cylinder.
This shows that our vision system understands that the shadow is a shadow, and decides that all the light squares are the same color and all the dark squares are the same (but darker than light squares) color.
But, if you press the “Stamp” key on your keyboard, then open “Paint” and do a “Paste”, try to cut the “A” marked square and overlap it on the “B” marked square… they are the same color
.
Even better, try to erase all but these two squares. Try to determine the item that, when erased, pulls the trigger that makes your vision system to see the apparently two different colors as the same.
The one with the checkers is wrong. I pulled it up on Gimp, its a free duplicate of photoshop
, and the two colors were way different. just goes to show you that if a website says optical illusions, you’re brain will trick you into double checking the checkerboard one in photoshop and thats where the real optocial illuison occurs…
oh, the jesus one was kewl
Hello stumbule-using troll. No. A large number of us have already established that yes, they are the same colours. And there’s even been pictures posted proving it, like this: http://i34.tinypic.com/33u7gix.jpg
Too bad for you I guess.
i didn’t see jesus until the one with the dots
So if you’re still doubting the one with the checkerboard go here and drag the two pieces around, you’ll see:
http://ggreiner9.googlepages.com/illusion.html
I dont know much about much, but reading these comments has been mildly amusing.
Way, way cool! These were a lot of fun.
If you stare intently at the “Jesus” dots for a full minute and then turn the lights off and close your eyes, he will appear to you almost in 3-D! It’s wild.
Interesting stuff. The Jesus and the flag were very cool. Only one I didn’t appreciate was the checkerboard they looked different to me, then again I’m about half a bottle of JD in, so who knows.
I’ll take a look again later when I open bottle #2!!
the chess board is real. I saw this years ago… printed it off and cut the squares out. They are the same colour. I got 6B6B6B in colour cop.
dave:copy the pic and use paint.cut color from 1 of the squares and put it in the other 1.they are the same.
Even though I have done that , I still fine it hard to belive, it truly is an optical illusion !!
Geez, the oldies looking at each other are pretty amazing!! This site’s awesome…
great illusions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dude
the square a and sqaure b are the same color
not the letters
like copy and paste it into your paint
zoom in (or not w/e)
take a piece of sqaure b and put it on sqaure a (vice versa)
and they are the same color!
^_^
I tried on checkboard, it is really a worth. I took a text tool written some text, applied color picked from A square, moved the same text to B square and the result is same, I am unable to see the text on both squares.
it dittent work for me im blind in 1 eye
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_adelsonCheckShadow/index.html
now the checkers thing is true look!
Thats awesome!!!!! I loved this!
the jesus one and the british flag dont work for me…..
omg i got it , it does work amazing….. and for tthe british flag one i seen the australian flag? is that weird?
I LIKE THE FIRST ONE BECAUSE AT FIRST BEFORE U STARE AT IT U CAN NOT REALLY SEE ANYTHING BUT THEN WHEN U LOOK AT A WHITE WALL U CAN SEE THAT IT IS JESUS OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT EASILY !!! THESE THINGS HAUNT ME HOW DO THEY DO IT