Spinning Ferry Wheel Illusion

Hey everyone! While you are reading this, I’m probably on my student journey to Santorini and Kreta in Greece. This is some kind of excursion students in my country take at the end of their college. I’m still 2 years from finishing it, but can’t hurt to travel, right? This post was written before my trip and my brother activated it as I ordered him (he is the one responsible for Mighty Magic Tricks). Hope he doesn’t mess this, and correctly activates my optical illusion articles in the following days (VIX don’t ruin this site!)(Vix: buahaha!).

Concerning the illusion, the wheel on the left is classic optical illusion we’ve already seen in famous Spinning Girl Illusion. Basically, if you observe the wheel carefully, you can make it turn both ways. You’ll need some training, but after few minutes, you’ll be able to change the spinning direction very quickly!

121 Replies to “Spinning Ferry Wheel Illusion”

  1. This is a great illusion – don’t look at it too long or you get dizzy!

    I think I know how it’s done, but I won’t spoil the surprise so early in the posts.

  2. if you look at the middle it just goes left right left right and it doesnt spin and if you look in the hut at the bottom it stops and bounces up and down

  3. hasn’t this illusion been posted before on this site?

    anyway, thanks for bringing it back up again.. it’s one of my favourites.

  4. thats well cool, i have ‘trained’ myself, and can make it switch any to go any way, of course we know its only two frames alternating with the same time difference but none the less, still good.

  5. in this one we can actually change the direction if we concentrate. but on the girl one i think its just the animation changing direction. ima go check it fbf

  6. wow, i like this one, i can actually do it, i couldn’t get the spinning girl to spin both ways! this one’s easier! cool. p.s. First Comment?!

  7. no1ns there 2 activate comments 2 bad. this illusion is evrywer and evry1ns seen it, is this the best u could come up with?

  8. MUHAHAHA! I am able to make it go both ways. My mind is all powerful. but no really this is a cool illusion. :-)
    sabrina

  9. Nice one, much easier to control than the spinning girl one though. Just took me a few secs to make this go in the desirable way.

  10. It didn’t take me that long to get it to change, maybe 5 seconds after I read the article, maybe a little less or a little mor, point is, it was easy for me. I think that that is one of the best illusions on this site (that I’ve seen)

    keep up the good work!!!

    Oh, and Mighty Magic tricks is awesome too!!!!

  11. Nice illusion! – but should it not be called a Ferris wheel, after the American guy who built the first large one?

  12. all it takes for me to get it to change directions is to look at it through one eye, then change the eye i look through.

  13. love this one! just flick your eyes to one side to make it go one way and vice versa…though if you stare at the centre of the wheel, you can see that it just kinda rocks back and forth =P

  14. To see it spin oposite, look away then relook at it. The illusion is two frames…. just offset. So if you catch the first frame on the left, you will see it going clockwise, and vise versa.

  15. this is actually very easy. what i did is close one eye at a time and it would spin to the opposite direction when i blinked

  16. Very pretty! Easy to change direction, though: I just looked to the left, and suddenly it was turning counter-clockwise. Whichever side I’m looking at is moving downward. Does it work that way for others?

  17. neat! i had to stare at the center for awhile to see if it was really an illusion or just a loop that changed directions occasionally…

  18. ok well to change the direction (atleast this way i can), you look at the Top right of the ferris wheel and you’ll see it spinning clock wise, if you look to the top left, you will see it spinning Counter Clock wise…

  19. 1st Comment!!!

    I think it works because it’s just two pictures going back and forth. you acn do this with the lights that go around movie pictures at the movie theater.

  20. do you have to have a widget to actually SEE the illusion? escape from the crimson room was the first one i ever saw.

  21. Hi. When I look wheel in the up side, it changes direction continuously, every 2-3 seconds!
    I’m crazy?!!
    (I’m sorry for grammatical errors, but I don’t speak english!!!).

  22. Nice! It didn’t take me too long at all to be able to change the direction of the wheel. I looked at the center first and then followed one of the arms out to the side quickly, and then I was able to make it go backwards. (I obviously saw forwards first!)

  23. this is one of the coolest illusions ever i love it to pieces. will there be any more similar to it because they are great!!

  24. If you can’t make it spin both directions, try blinking … and “think” of it going the other way. Works like a charm.

    I found this easier than the spinning ballerina one myself

  25. Hehe.. I might have seen this one a little to many times but if you look in the middle it looks like it’s stuck (Cuz the animation itself is just 2 frames/pictures looping)

  26. OMG this is true. In the start it took some concetration to make it change direction, but after i minute i could do i in a snap.

    This illusion is cool

  27. If you close your eyes, imagine it going the other way, it will.

    If you close your eyes, imagine it getting “stuck” and wobbling back and forth, it will.

    Pretty cool.

  28. I lokked in the center and saw that the center of the wheel was going back and forth, so it’s not going any direction.

  29. i think that this has sumthin to do with the angle were looking at this and that it keeps flashing from light to dark
    um…. am i the first one?

  30. Haha I love this.

    I can do the same thing with my fan at home, but it takes longer, so its not something you can change, its a trick of the eye.

  31. I’ve also done this with a fan, specifically my ceiling fan spinning at a low speed. Usually happens late at night when I’m trying to fall asleep and find myself staring up at the ceiling. :)

  32. Look at the middle. Notice its shakes, not spins. However, our eyes perceive that it is spinning, because it is shaking both ways. This was done by a 12 year old.

  33. Lol cool :)

    It does make me dizzy tho -.-

    To me it goes the different direction every 2 seconds

    But I think that might just b me :S

  34. —big spoiler—

    just look at the position of the wheel. imagine it on the outside and it turns clockwise imagine it facing you it turns counter clockwise

  35. simple….
    try looking right side…it turns right doesn’t it?
    now try looking at the left side…and it turns to the left… pretty cool though..

  36. Wow!! its amazing!! everytime i turn my eyes the otehr direction the wheel went that way!!
    very cool

  37. Seeing this illusion made me realize how they achieved the spinning woman. That one had me amazed and baffled.

  38. at first i could not make it change directions… then i decided to try looking at the center of the wheel and that got it to change. after that i could make it change any time i wanted like flicking a switch. either by blinking or twitching my eyes left or right. can’t make it stop spinning, though…

  39. This is simple if u look at the middle of the image. All it is is 2 images switching back and forth.

  40. its like going back and forth rapidly and thats how u think its going around and around but its just going back-forth-back-forth ect.

  41. there’s just 2 images shifting rapidly, that’s all to it, just 2 static images switching, giving the impression of movement

  42. Its just a animated image(gif) with a pre-determined time do change the direction.
    This image is trolling you guys.

  43. Try looking at the Base of the Structure… if you seee that it only Frames a Left to right , Simultaneous Shake as in (Shaking a Doorknob) you could be able to catch yourself on the Spinning left if you focused more on the (Left twitch) and Via with the Right.

  44. fake, the animation is manipulated to make the mind think the wheel has started spinning in the other direction. If it all were just a matter of the mind then it wouldn’t flip after so many seconds every single time. Don’t believe me? Time it.

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