Optical Illusions

Optical illusions use color, light, and shapes in a way that creates patterns that can be deceptive to the human eye and mind. Our eyes are conditioned evolutionarily to see things a certain way that makes sense to our brains. We see what is useful and significant to us in ways that have benefitted us through human evolution while other organisms have different mechanisms of seeing the world to cater to their specific needs that differ from ours. We perceive light, color, and shapes in a way that is inherently human and we understand optics enough in order to know why we can distort the things we see.

Even Aristotle in 350 BC noted how easily our eyes can be fooled. Whether it be through musings of ancient Greek philosophers or natural phenomena, the world is filled with optical illusions. Sometimes we know they are occurring but still have a hard time getting our eyes to see the truth. For example, the Hermann grid makes our eyes see little grey dots within white intersections of a white lattice on a black background (see picture below). Although we know that the lines are completely solid white, our eyes invent little grey circles in the intersections, blurring reality and imagination. If you focus your vision on one singular intersection, you can see that there is no grey dot but all other unfocused intersections contain the illusion.

Other illusions can be created by manipulating the way we see objects in relation to each other. If two circles are the same size, but one circle is surrounded by other large circles and the second circle is surrounded by small circles, the two same-sized circles may appear to be different sizes altogether. This is called the Ebbinghaus illusion.

Our eyes work this way for the good- it makes it easier for use to translate and understand information. Because for the most part, what our eyes are doing is correct, but does not translate to all scenarios. When we are in a hurry, our eyes can easily interpret things to make them easier for us to translate, but when we present our eyes with something that appears one way but is actually another, that is where the illusion begins. Our brains are not as infallible as we think- they can fail and get confused and misinterpret things. Our eyes and mind are capable of astounding things but are also prone to shortcuts and shortcomings.


The beauty of an optical illusions lies in that we can still be aware of it occurring for it to happen. You can look at any of the illusions listed above and still see them. You can tell your eyes and mind that they’re being fooled and but you will still see the illusion just the same. This fascinating part of the human mind tells us that we aren’t perfect, and that what you see is not always the ultimate truth.

an example of an Ebbinghaus Illusion

an example of a Hermann Grid

a drawing of an optical illusion

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