00:00 White and gold or blue and black? What colors do you see?
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most complex and sophisticated
00:09 photos, videos or graphics that could play visual tricks on your brain.
00:13 Number 10 - The Penrose Stairs
00:23 Imagine going up a flight of stairs, only to end up back in your original position.
00:29 Such is the impossible situation of the Penrose Stairs.
00:33 Popularized by father and son team Lionel and Roger Penrose,
00:37 this optical illusion depicts a two-dimensional stairwell consisting of four 90-degree turns.
00:42 Much like a snake biting its own tail, the steps are presented in a continuous loop
00:47 and can either appear to be ascending or descending depending on how you view it.
00:51 As such, anyone who climbs them never gets higher or lower, but returns to where they began.
00:58 This illusion manipulates perspective and geometry,
01:01 creating a visual enigma that only gets more confusing the more you look at it.
01:05 Number 9 - Color Saturation Illusion
01:13 What do you see when you look at this image? Three blue circles of different shades, perhaps?
01:19 What if we told you that all three rings were, in fact, the exact same shade of blue?
01:25 This illusion, created by the British optical retailer Lensdor,
01:28 exploits the phenomenon of visual contrast to manipulate your perception of the colors.
01:33 This is because your brain factors in other secondary information,
01:38 such as the surroundings and backgrounds in order to interpret the color of an object.
01:42 If you're still not sold that the circles are the same shade,
01:45 the truth is revealed when you transfer them from the multi-shade backdrop onto a white one.
01:50 Mind-blowing, right?
01:52 Number 8 - The Pina-Brelstaff Rotating Rings
01:55 For this illusion to come to life, follow these steps.
01:59 First, focus on the small dot in the center for a few seconds.
02:02 Then, pull your head closer to your screen.
02:05 You should notice that the rings begin to rotate.
02:08 Take your head back and you'll see that they are now moving in the opposite direction.
02:12 But weren't they stationary just a moment ago?
02:15 Named after Bainjo Pina and Gavin J. Brelstaff,
02:18 this illusion features concentric rings made up of strategically placed lines
02:22 that create a sense of implied motion due to their shapes and arrangement.
02:26 The deception is possible because the apparent motion occurs in your peripheral vision,
02:31 rather than your direct line of sight.
02:32 Number 7 - The Kiniza Triangle
02:35 This classic optical illusion tricks our brains into perceiving a white,
02:40 equilateral triangle in the center of the image.
02:43 But in reality, no such triangle exists.
02:46 Named after Italian psychologist Gaetano Kiniza, who popularized the phenomenon,
02:51 this illusion demonstrates our brain's ability to connect the dots,
02:54 even when the information presented is incomplete.
02:57 The Kiniza Triangle features three Pac-Man-like figures,
03:00 with their open mouths aligned in such a way that they form the edges of the shape.
03:04 Interestingly, this phantom triangle also appears to be brighter than the background,
03:09 despite being equally lit.
03:10 This goes to show how our brains can make assumptions
03:13 and fill in gaps based on our own expectations.
03:16 The brain ignores the gaps and completes the figure itself.
03:19 Number 6 - The Phantom Queen
03:21 Crafted by British magician Matt Pritchard,
03:24 this simple yet clever illusion claimed top honors at the 2021 Best Illusion of the Year contest.
03:31 It ingeniously relies on two pretty basic elements - a hand-drawn chessboard and a mirror.
03:37 On one side, the board is populated only by black chess pieces.
03:41 But something seems amiss.
03:43 In the mirror reflection, there exists an illusory white queen.
03:47 So how does Pritchard make the queen disappear from the real-life board?
03:51 The answer lies in your perspective.
03:53 While cleverly deceptive, this illusion can only be viewed from a particular angle,
03:58 as it utilizes an anamorphic camouflage to conceal the queen.
04:02 A slight shift in perspective and the position of the precious queen is betrayed.
04:06 Number 5 - The Spinning Dancer
04:08 Chances are you've encountered this perplexing clip before.
04:13 It surfaced in 2003 thanks to Japanese web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara,
04:17 and quickly gained popularity.
04:20 Yet despite the passage of time, it remains just as confusing.
04:24 The illusion depicts a dancer spinning on one leg.
04:27 What makes it so intriguing is that some see the figure twirling in the clockwise direction,
04:32 while others see a counterclockwise movement.
04:35 Initially hailed as a test of left or right brain dominance,
04:38 it's essentially a visual challenge that exploits the absence of depth and perspective cues.
04:43 As such, your brain does what it does best - fills in the gaps.
04:47 We don't know about you, but staring at this clip for too long just makes us feel dizzy.
04:51 Number 4 - The Scintillating Grid Illusion
04:54 Devised in 1994, this phenomenon builds upon the Hermann grid illusion,
05:00 which consists of black squares on a white background that produce gray blobs at each intersection.
05:06 The scintillating grid illusion, however, takes a slightly different approach.
05:10 It takes a black background and overlays it with gray lines that intersect both vertically and horizontally.
05:16 At each intersection is a tiny white disk,
05:19 over which black dots seem to appear and disappear rapidly when you look at the image.
05:23 This creates the scintillating illusion that lends its name to the phenomenon.
05:27 Rest assured though, this is just a picture, not a gif, and there are no black dots here.
05:33 It's just your mind playing tricks on you.
05:35 Number 3 - The Jastrow Illusion
05:38 Take a long look at these two objects placed next to each other.
05:42 Surely the one on the bottom is larger than the other, right?
05:45 Well, if you've been following, you should know that you are wrong.
05:49 Both images are of the exact same size, which you will realize once they're stacked on top of each other.
05:55 Known as the Jastrow illusion,
05:57 it was first defined by the Polish-American psychologist Joseph Jastrow over a hundred years ago.
06:02 Scientists aren't exactly sure why this illusion occurs.
06:05 Nonetheless, the brain is automatically tricked into perceiving their sizes differently
06:10 due to the juxtaposition of the shorter side of one object with the longer side of the other.
06:15 Number 2 - The Motion Illusion
06:18 This is yet another mesmerizing visual trick that exploits our brain's tendency
06:22 to perceive motion where there actually is none.
06:24 Unlike the Pina Brelstaff rotating rings,
06:28 this illusion doesn't require you to focus your eyes on any particular point for them to start moving.
06:32 These images deceive our brain through a combination of contrasting colors, patterns, and arrangements.
06:38 Specifically, the use of black and white in the shading of these shapes
06:42 assists in the imagined movement.
06:44 In addition to motion, it also creates an illusion of depth,
06:48 compelling us to interpret the images as three-dimensional when they are, in fact, flat.
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07:07 Number 1 - The Impossible Trident
07:11 Just as the name implies, this optical illusion is impossible.
07:16 Also known as the Devil's Tuning Fork,
07:19 the Impossible Trident was created by American psychologist D.H. Schuster
07:24 and gained prominence in the 1960s.
07:26 At first glance, this figure is bound to leave you deeply confused.
07:30 It consists of three prongs at one end that appear to originate from two prongs at the other end,
07:36 a feat that defies all logic.
07:38 Not only that, the prongs start out as rectangular before transforming into cylindrical bases.
07:45 The lines of the trident are drawn in such a way that they distort our perspective and perception of depth,
07:51 successfully tricking our brains into believing in the impossible.
07:54 Which of these illusions left you utterly perplexed?
07:58 Sound off in the comments below.
08:00 I am the same size here as I am over here.
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08:12 [Music]
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