Some find them frustrating, while others just can’t get enough – optical illusions is something that will always leave you perplexed and questioning your eyesight.
Optical illusions are images that differ from the objective reality. But how do they work?
Basically, it’s our minds trying to find the easiest way to look at things. At a first glance, we try to relate the image with the most basic and close interpretation of it, and only after a few seconds do we realize that separate details of the image don’t even make sense. This element of surprise is also what gets us in the so-called perfectly timed pictures: first we see one thing, but then it can be deconstructed into something else.
Check out this list of incredible and funny optical illusions and see for yourself!
A woman poses for a photograph in front of a 3D painting at an exhibition in Guiyang, China on April 14, 2013. (Reuters photo)A security guard jokingly inspects the back of a self-portrait entitled “Mask II” by Australian sculptor Ron Mueck at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 31, 2006. (REUTERS/David Moir)
A man jumps into the cool water of the Dnipro river in Kiev, where temperatures reached 91.4 degrees on June 11, 2010. (REUTERS / Konstantin Chernichkin)
Spectators and soldiers, from behind a cut-out of Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, watch the third day’s play in the first test cricket match between Sri Lanka and India from the top of a fort overlooking the grounds on July 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)
Simon Ammann of Switzerland and Austria’s Martin Koch walk down the stairs for their practice jump on the Large Hill HS134 at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Oslo on March 1, 2011. (REUTERS / Petr Josek)
Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi unsuccessfully appeals for West Indies’ Ramnaresh Sarwan as he stands behind West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul during their Cricket World Cup 2011 quarterfinal match in Dhaka on March 23, 2011. (REUTERS / Adnan Abidi)
German street artist Johan Lorbeer is observed while performing “Tarzan. Standing Leg Still Life Performance” at the Alhondiga Centre on the first day of the Aste Nagusia (Big Week), a nine-day fiesta, in Bilbao on August 20, 2011. (REUTERS / Vincent West)
Visitors are reflected in mirrors at the installation “Environment 3″ by artist Luc Peire at the Auckland Art Gallery on October 17, 2011. (REUTERS / Stefan Wermuth)
Artist Liu Bolin demonstrates an art installation by blending in with vegetables displayed on the shelves at a supermarket in Beijing on November 10, 2011. (REUTERS / China Daily)
Actors pose with gym equipment on what the Guinness World Records bills as the world’s largest 3D painting, at Canary Wharf in London on November 17, 2011. (REUTERS / Paul Hackett)
Snow is piled up near the landmark Fernsehturm television tower on a sunny winter day in Berlin on February 3, 2011. (REUTERS / Thomas Peter)
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson hangs on the rim after a dunk during the first half of the NBA BBVA Rising Star Challenge basketball game in Houston, Texas, on February 15, 2013. (REUTERS / Bob Donnan)
Members of a family pose for a photograph in front of a 3D painting at the 2012 Magic Art Special Exhibition in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on July 7, 2012. (REUTERS / Carlos Barria)
A woman (reflected in the mirror) and a man stand at a washstand at a camp, The Territory of the Initiative Youth “Biryusa”, on the banks of the Yenisei river in the Siberian Taiga, some 37 miles south of Russian city of Krasnoyarsk on July 28, 2012. (REUTERS / Ilya Naymushin)
Bulgaria’s Silviya Miteva competes using the ball in the individual all-around rhythmic gymnastics final at Wembley Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games on August 11, 2012. (REUTERS / Marcelo Del Pozo)
Legoland Parks’ Project Coordinator Stefan Bentivoglio of Germany makes fine adjustments to a lego model of Singapore’s Fullerton hotel and Merlion during a media preview of Legoland Malaysia on September 14, 2012. (REUTERS / Edgar Su)
A visitor looks at a monumental sculpture by artist Robert Therrien in the newly opened Metropolitan Arts Centre in Belfast on April 23, 2012. (REUTERS / Cathal McNaughton)
The full moon rises through the Olympic Rings hanging beneath Tower Bridge during the London 2012 Olympic Games on August 3, 2012. (REUTERS / Luke MacGregor)
The rear end and head and shoulders of Eurasier dogs Tinu and Uno are seen from behind a tree as their handler (not pictured) holds onto their leads during the launch of the Crufts dog show in Green Park, central London, on February 24, 2004. (REUTERS / Natasha-Marie Brown)
A partially submerged billboard on a tramstop is seen on the flooded embankments of the Danube River in Budapest on June 10, 2013. (REUTERS / Laszlo Balogh)
France’s Mathieu Valbuena, right, is challenged by Belgium’s Marouane Fellaini, left, and Vincent Kompany during their international friendly soccer match at the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels on August 14, 2013. (REUTERS / Yves Herman)
A man holds the hand of an idol of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, during idol immersion ceremony in the Hussain Sagar lake during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on September 17, 2013. (REUTERS / Krishnendu Halder)
Visitors look at each other in an Ames room at a private exhibition of optical Illusions in St. Petersburg on September 24, 2013. An Ames room is constructed with a distorted perspective to confuse observers’ sense of scale. (REUTERS / Alexander Demianchuk)
Visitors are seen in a reflection as they pose on Argentine artist Leonardo Erlich’s optical illusion installation “Dalston House” in east London on June 26, 2013. The artwork, commissioned by the Barbican Gallery, uses mirrors to create the impression of a house on which people can play and pose for visual effect. (REUTERS / Luke MacGregor)
And these cool Indian guys!
A radio-controlled Superman plane, flown by designer Otto Dieffenbach, passes the moon during a test flight in San Diego on June 27, 2013. (REUTERS / Mike Blake)
Nine-day-old female Rothschild Giraffe Hera (front) walks past 2-day-old male Hermes in their enclosure at the Knies Kinderzoo in Rapperswil, Switzerland on May 7, 2009. (REUTERS / Christian Hartmann)
People walk through the doors of a cardboard car during a street party on Serrano street in Madrid on September 25, 2010. (REUTERS / Susana Vera)
Philadelphia Phillies player Ben Francisco reacts after being hit in the head with a pitch by the Cincinnati Reds’ Logan Ondrusek during the sixth inning in Game 2 of the MLB National League Division Series baseball playoffs in Philadelphia on October 8, 2010. (REUTERS / Tim Shaffer)
