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Beyond Belief and Back (in 30 secs.): An Optical Illusion

video Beyond Belief and Back (in 30 secs.): An Optical Illusion

If you've never seen this illusion before, prepare to be thoroughly baffled! It appears to be absolutely impossible. Fret not, though, because this video contains sufficient proof of its validity. This is a re-created version of Roger Shepard's "Turning the Tables" illusion.

This visual phenomenon is taken to another level by drawing it, along with a cutout that "proves" it, and providing links to the same drawing and proof cutout that you see in the video. Feel free to use these items as guides for drawing it yourself, or just print them out to see that this unbelievable illusion is actually believable!

See/print the drawing:
http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FA4/5593/FOHU2T5D/FA45593FOHU2T5D.pdf

See/print the proof cutout:
http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FQ6/T577/FOHU2T5K/FQ6T577FOHU2T5K.pdf

See the formal, full Instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Create_and_Prove_the_Most_Perplexing_Illusion_EVER/

51 comments

1-40 of 51

Oct 1, 2009. 1:22 PMLowney says:

Wow this is really cool! Congrats on your victory!

Oct 2, 2009. 1:18 PM

greeenpro (author) says:

Thank you so much! If I'm right, you won too....CONGRATULATIONS!!! (now, I really hope I'm right :)

Oct 2, 2009. 11:57 PMLowney says:

Yeah you're right ;)

Oct 3, 2009. 3:08 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

'Magic With Fire'...I like it.

Oct 3, 2009. 4:26 AMLowney says:

Thanks! I was going to call it "Matchstick Magic," but I thought that "Magic with Fire" sounded cooler and would hopefully attract a bit more attention! I like the "Beyond belief and back" title too!

Oct 3, 2009. 11:22 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

Good titles are a vital part of the whole "packaging" of a video. 'Magic with Fire' is so much better than 'Matchstick Magic', in my opinion, because it is more mysterious :)

Sep 21, 2009. 7:57 PMDeathstick says:

The video was well done and the extra links for the drawings where a nice touch but BAFFLED I was not!

Sep 6, 2009. 9:01 AMredrooster says:

i dont believe this.its all done with mirrors & bits of string i think i saw a waft of smoke there as well

Sep 6, 2009. 4:46 PM

greeenpro (author) says:

Wow, you are good.

Sep 4, 2009. 2:59 AMblugyblug says:

This has been around for ages...
I need some new illusions. Most illusions out there have the same concept.
And its not really the most perpelxing illusion =S

Aug 31, 2009. 10:07 AMwibrle says:

Just goes to show that we can't trust our eyes 100%

Sep 3, 2009. 4:29 AMmolusco says:

You can trust your eyes. You can't trust your brain. PS: this is a cool illusion. I had to do something similar to what it's done in the video the first time i saw it.

Sep 3, 2009. 6:01 PMi805 says:

I liked that sentence,really expresses us humans

Sep 3, 2009. 10:16 AM

frollard says:

There are lots of illusions that rely on you being unable to trust your eyes themselves (like the animation of the purple dot disappearing around a circle, and when you stare it fades the purple (eye response) and the dot looks 'green'.)

Sep 3, 2009. 11:32 AMmolusco says:

Ok. So then, you can't trust your eyes nor your brain. I agree. There's also the one about the dot dissapearing because of that blind spot in the eye. Who said the human body was a perfect machine?

Sep 4, 2009. 9:26 PMcofosho says:

That spot is where all the individual nerves coalesce to form your optic nerve. Since they're there, there can't be any sensory nerve endings. Crazy? Yes. Awesome? Abso-frickin'-lutely.

Sep 5, 2009. 5:58 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

Retinal lusciousness :)

Sep 3, 2009. 11:44 AM

frollard says:

davinci?

Sep 3, 2009. 4:54 PM

greeenpro (author) says:

*Hearty laugh*

Sep 4, 2009. 5:28 AMmolusco says:

Now I'm lost.

Sep 4, 2009. 5:53 AM

frollard says:

google vitruvian man. the 'perfect man'...

Sep 4, 2009. 6:41 AMmolusco says:

I do know Vitruvian man. Aaaaaaaanyway, this is getting too far!!

Sep 4, 2009. 7:49 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

Agreed : }

Sep 4, 2009. 7:33 AM

frollard says:

I don't deny you know it - you said you were lost :P

Sep 4, 2009. 8:18 AMmolusco says:

Stop it stop it!!! :D

Sep 3, 2009. 4:57 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

There seems to be an instinctual need to prove it for ourselves since we can't always trust other people. :)

Thanks for viewing and commenting!

Sep 3, 2009. 4:59 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

The older I get, the less I trust my brain.

Sep 3, 2009. 9:16 AMTygerwoody says:

I didn't mean any disrespect to the OP. Hopefully he doesn't take it that way. I just didn't see the illusion. And with a title like "Beyond Belief", I was expecting to see something neat. Thats all.

Sep 3, 2009. 7:41 AMdroppocket says:

what this proves is why some people can read a blue print of a house and other people don't understand what they see.

Sep 2, 2009. 1:12 PMTygerwoody says:

Am I missing something? It looks like a kid drew two tables with crayons. And thats what it ended up being. Seriously. What am I missing? Someone help me where the illusion comes into place?

Sep 3, 2009. 3:45 AMjohnnyknob says:

I agree with Tyger. This isn't anything special, it's not "OMG thats soo trippy durr", just an old, rubbish optical illusion that anyone over the age of five should have seen before. You make it out to be something absolutely mind boggling and amazing, but its just not.

Sep 3, 2009. 5:47 AMLinkiboy says:

I'm going to have to agree with these two individuals. They look like the same size, proof or not :\

Sep 3, 2009. 4:53 AM

greeenpro (author) says:

Ok. Now, to say that this is "rubbish" is just plain rude and offensive. This is a 30 second video on how to effectively prove the validity of a classic optical illusion. If it's not your cup of tea, then....well, fine. Apparently you are in the minority on that though.

Sep 3, 2009. 4:34 PMamplex says:

I see the illusion in it. To me, upon 1st glance, the table on the right appears bigger because it appears to be wider than the other. To my girlfriend (whos first response was 'they are the same size' because she figured it was an illusion), after closer inspection, the one on the left looked bigger because it appears longer. It seems to be the adding of the legs giving it 3d depth that your brain uses to appropriate how much 'space' it takes up. The main reason most people say they look exactly the same is because their brain sees the title 'optical illusion' (or they understand that they are looking at a possible optical illusion) and most examples of illusions like this, the objects are actually the same size. Thanks for the illusion. And thank Science for units of measurement which is the real judge of surface area/volume! =]

Sep 3, 2009. 4:53 PM

greeenpro (author) says:

Very well put. I think that you have a great point about the title 'optical illusion' and its implications. Thanks for the well thought-out comment.

Sep 2, 2009. 2:03 PM

greeenpro (author) says:

I appreciate your opinion. It seems that a lot of other people find this to be a good illusion.