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NIEHS Kids' Pages Index!

If you stare at the following picture long enough,
you should see a giraffe...

What are "illusions"? Illusions trick us into perceiving something differently than it actually exists, so what we see does not correspond to physical reality. Hence, the word illusion comes from the Latin verb illudere meaning, "to mock." In addition, some illusions show us one thing in a picture, while someone else sees something entirely different in the same picture.

Research scientists must be sure that the results of their work are not "illusory" in nature. They need to accurately report what "is", rather than their general "impression" of "what is". So many times a scientist will repeat an experiment many times, or in different laboratories, to ensure that their results were valid. Science is only "good science" when anyone can repeat the experiment and get the same results.

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Let's play with some words...what do you see?

In black you can read the word GOOD;
but the word EVIL also appears in white letters inside each black letter.

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Now what do you see?

You may not see it at first, but the white spaces create the word OPTICAL,
while the blue landscape spells out ILLUSION.

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And what do you see below?

This one is quite tricky! The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.

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Last one of these -- what do you see?

You probably read the word ME in brown, but.......
when you look through ME
you will see YOU!
Do you need to look again?

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The Man in the Coffee Beans

The "illusion" is that this is just a picture of coffee beans; but it is not. Can you find a man's face among the beans? Some say that if you find the man in 3 seconds or less, the right half of your brain may be more well developed than most.

PS: This is not a trick. A man's face is really hidden among the beans.

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The following pictures are NOT animated.

Your eyes are making them move. To test this, stare at one spot in each picture for a few seconds and everything will stop moving; OR look at the black center of each circle in the first picture, and it will stop moving; but when you move your eyes to the next black center, the previous one will move after you take your eyes away from it.

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And here is another type of illusion.
Count the people in the picture below.
After they shift, count them again!

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Index to More Illusions

Illusion 1 Illusion 2 Illusion 3 Illusion 4 Illusion 5 Illusion 6 Illusion 7 Illusion 8 Illusion 9 Illusion 10

Illusion 11 Illusion 12 Illusion 13 Illusion 14 Illusion 15 Illusion 16 Illusion 17 Illusion 18 Illusion 19 Illusion 20

Illusion 21 Illusion 22 Illusion 23 Illusion 24 Illusion 25 Illusion 26 Illusion 27 Illusion 28 Illusions 29 - 35 Illusions 36 - 39

Another Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena Site
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