Monday Morning Brain Teaser

When you first look at the animated gif, you might think that the image is swirling faster and faster the closer it gets to the inside. If you take the image and look at it further, you can easily see how the animated brain teaser moves at the same rate all around the image. As each dot independently moves, you get swept into the animation and easily become entranced. For those who are prone to motion sickness, this animation will get you going and have you trying to stop the room from spinning. Check out the black-and-white animation and see what you think.

Monday Morning Brain Teaser

After watching the movement for a few seconds, I had to sit back and try to get the room back under control. Since the image was moving so quickly in this animation, it was hard to look away at first. As I swirled my head round and round, the image seemed to get faster. This brain teaser is one that you have to pull yourself away from to regain your focus. Maybe, for you, it won’t bother you as much as it did me. What did the animation do for you?

Did you find yourself seeing things that weren’t there after looking at the illusion? It was almost like one of those hypnotic illusions that tries to get you to succumb to their every will and command. Before you know it, you will be doing things that you don’t want to just because you are so into the illusion. Even though it is nothing more than a simple black-and-white colored illusion, it offers something that not a lot of other illusions can bring to the table. Beware of being sucked into the animated brain teaser! You never know where it might take you.

9 Replies to “Monday Morning Brain Teaser”

  1. Not an illusion! Slow the frame rate down and the center dots ARE moving faster than the outside ones.

    You can see it slower here http://oi39.tinypic.com/2zgwva1.jpg

    Most of the dots are moving at the same speed but about the 6-7th row from the center follow a dot from the top around and by 1/4th the way around it’s jumped to a new row. Check any 3rd dot from center and by 1/2 way around it’s moved 3 rows.

  2. OK, I’m going to change my comment. This is more subtle than I thought.

    The dots are moving in a spiral toward the center. Since they are following each other and not bunching up or getting separated, then they are indeed all moving at the same speed – at least, in the sense that it takes the same time for each to move to the position the previous one was just at…

    What’s really going on here is we view this as a disc. If the marks were indeed painted on a disc, then the outermost ones would be going much faster (instantaneous velocity) than those in the middle. So this illusion turns that relationship inside out, and makes us see the “disc” all screwy. Cool.

    (Final note: “speed” is mathematically a vector property (it has a direction as well as distance), and in that sense these dots are accelerating. Doesn’t really affect the illusion, though.)

  3. Love this one. Besides all the other things mentioned, I also see colours in between the black dots after looking at it for a while.

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