Rotating Rays Illusion

Just came home from cinema. I took a night out with my girlfriend and we watched Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage. It’s a nice flick. I really like seeing those Marvel comic heroes on big screen. It’s just that I never heard of this super hero with flaming skull. Hehe, you should see it, maybe not the Oscar nominee, but you’ll surely spend exciting 2 hours.

Concerning illusions, I didn’t forget my loyal visitors. Maybe not the most complex one, but this illusion below holds some really nice effect. Did you notice how those little diamond-shaped objects seem to move in opposite directions? Outer circle seems to rotate clockwise, while the inner one appears rotating anti-clockwise. Yes, you noticed correctly that this picture below is static gif file, and that all the movement you see happens only because of some (to me unknown) psychological phenomenon. I’ll place this in Illusionary movement folder. Open the picture in full size, to get better effect.

21 Replies to “Rotating Rays Illusion”

  1. It appears to rotate because of the two dots on the sides of the diamonds. Allow your eyes to unfocus so you can’t see them and the illusion goes away.

  2. Weird. Assume it’s something to do with the positioning of the small black dots that give the illusion of movement. Love the site by the way.

  3. If you had not noticed the small dots that would trick a very week eye, I would have to say perhaps try reading a book. Words also move and bend in incandescent ways. You were tricked by the rotation of smaller shapes among larger portions of a trashy conglomeration of a poor illusion.

  4. The inner one doesn’t seem to be rotating at all, but the upper one does.

    get drunk and then see whats up!!

  5. Neither of the circles are moving at all, but special illusion makes believe that they are rotating in the opposite direction!

  6. isnt it just coz the outer ones have 2 black dots on then, facing right, and on the inner ones, they’re facing left? i dunno really.

  7. Oh, this has to be one of my favorite optical illusions. If you stare straight at it and don’t let your eyes move at all the diamonds will hold more still, it has to do with the way eye movements and peripheral vision works, if I remember correctly.

  8. hey sorry, buddy, but you think u are way too cool….trust me u have no loyal visitors….ahhhmm….and this illllllusion is so lame…so please, please do us allll a favor and get a life and go away..

    <3,

    anonymous

  9. What’s with people and calling these illusions bad, I mean, If you don’t like them, then don’t come.
    BTW, This illusion is clever. The shadows at the back of the diamonds also contributes to the seemingly rotating motion, I think… I like it.

  10. i agree. if it is so bad then why do so many people like it? you are just being a jerk because you wish you could do something like that but know you can’t. And who are you to tell this person that he/she has no life. you don’t know what that person does when not the computer screen. Why don’t you get a life and stop putting other people down for doing what they like to do.

  11. I read somewhere that the eye can’t focus on blue and red at the same time, and thus when these two colors are together there will appear some slight vibration as the eye literally goes back and forth in its focus. I suspect that has something to do with this cool illusion!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *