Audi R8 Optical Illusion

When I announced that you can expect more classy optical illusions in the future, this is just what I had in mind. Before we start, I’d like to thank Xaver Nitsch for creating this original optical illusion just for us! Now, I’m perfectly aware we already had dozen of relative sizes illusions. We even had a very similar one including Range Rovers. BTW, this is where Xaver probably got his inspiration in the first place… But wait! This one is different. I won’t explain it though, I’m just gonna ask you a simple question – Which one of these three Audi’s (R8) do you think is the largest? Don’t rush, take your time. I have included an expandable solution just below the original image. When you think you know what is going on here, you may expand the box containing the answer. Be aware that the answer image is actually an animation. Wait for a few seconds before it starts. What do you think of this illusion now? Was this what you expected?

Which one is largest? - Illusion of 3 Audi's
Which one is largest? - Illusion of 3 Audi's

[DDET Click To View the Solution Animation]
3 Audi's Optical Illusion - Solution Animation[/DDET]

80 Replies to “Audi R8 Optical Illusion”

  1. Wow! I thought the furthest one away was going to be the biggest and that the closest one was the smallest.

  2. Same here, paperclippe!
    That was awesome!
    I guess we expected them to be the same because we thought they were trying to trick us by thinking the opposite of what actually was real. If you get what i mean.

  3. As soon as you said its different i was like ooo, then you asked the question and i knew before looking again what the answer was ;) pretty cool indeed that! whats funny is a few years back when i saw similar illusions i was actually thinking that this type of thing could be done (with size difference illusions) that you could ACTUALLY make the one that appears to BE the smallest, in fact much bigger, rather than the same size =)

  4. sweet! There’s still sand or dirt or whatever in the window of the front car though…..

  5. The second one is clearly larger than the third one. I think there is too large a discrepancy between the sizes. But the second one also looks larger than the first one, so the illusion definitely works in that regard.

  6. wow I thought they’d be the same size and my mom did too…but the front one is bigger…no matter how you look at it I didn’t expect that…finally an ilussion that stumped me…

  7. That is amazing. It took a lot to convince myself that they were all equal – I as blown away when I saw the real sizes. Even printed a copy out and cut the cars up to prove it!

  8. This is one of the best size illusions, it really does fool you, makes you go back and take a closer look..
    Thanks for putting it on

  9. haha i was expecting it to be number 2
    but it wasnt
    interesting
    not like the other ones we’re they are ALL the same size

  10. Man, that one was awesome! Never thought that THAT ONE would be the largest car…
    Well, anyways, that was awesome!
    Cheers!

  11. Nice, I already thought it was the front one, when you said ‘take your time’, but for it too actually be the front one… wow, very nice

  12. Amazing… After checking (just measure it with the width of a finger) the right one is actually the largest.

  13. Wow, that’s a great illusion, as I was expecting them to be the same size from all of the other size illusions on this website. Awesome!

  14. I really liked this illusion. Made size measurements to verify and was surprised. Also removed background to check its influence and cut and paste to change the order in which the cars appear. The illusion seems to work on how the brain processes perspective cues. It appears that the brain expects an object of the same actual size to much smaller when it is further away. Shrink the further object less than than the brain expects and it actually appears larger. Reverse image order (further closer) and the effect is obvious. Note the distortion of the image background to enhance the brain’s perspective expectations.

  15. Sweet. I thought the middle one was largest. Plus I like the cars! :D I would like more 3D illusions, though.

  16. i guess that the first one (appearing smallest) would be larger once you said that it was different

  17. Wow, I just assumed it was another “show three identical images in a vanishing point perspective to make the back one look larger than the front one” type of illusion.

    But I had NO IDEA that the back one was actually SMALLER than the front one.

    Really well done!

  18. i thought the middle one was the biggest, but the front just barley is, nice touch on the animated solution as well, just a note, when i clicked it, it was allready in mid animation. you may want to have the animation start by clicking on the “show solution” button rather then having it automatically start when the page loads.

  19. I never expected the first one to be the largest.
    Egad — the universe doesn’t make sense anymore.
    Can someone please explain this mystery to me? I am totally stumped.

    karen

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  21. I’ll cry “foul” on this one!

    Half of the leading car wasn’t shown in the original picture, which unfairly limited our perception unfairly. However, the full outline is shown in the animation.

    The animated solution therefore “cheats”, as it adds unknown (to the viewer) information to the original image. We obviously can’t assess what we can’t see! Very poor.

  22. Hmmm… the cars aren’t evenly spaced, so you see a little more of the middle car, making it look bigger? and the front car is partly out of the frame, making it look smaller?

    @ausGeoff: measure the distance from the bottom of the front tire to the steering wheel. no cheating!

  23. I was not entirely sure why the animations that were closer on screen turned down and why did it leave certain tid bits around

  24. My observation took me too a totally different conclusion. This shows us that your eyes can really be deceving and it can make your mind think something that is not true.

  25. OK I thought the 3rd one was bigger because of a perspective/riddle thing but not at all because it looks bigger. And further I keep re-playing the solution because I’m still not convinced

  26. Thank you very much and I wish you a happy new year! I’m happy that you like my little illusion that much and I had never expected that this one would be one of the top 10 illusions! I just played around a bit with photoshop to raise my “photoshop-skills”! Thanks

  27. to be honest, that crossed my mind once, but then as i studied the picture further, i was like “nah!” little did i know..

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