Two Fluid Optical Illusions

Its my pleasure to hear all those positive comments you wrote in our yesterday’s post. I’m aware this site needs some additional tweaks and modifications to work flawlessly, but the main thing is that all the widgets and links are working without interruption! Next thing I’m about to do, after finishing this post, is correcting the two “about” links in the navbar, adding random illusion button at the end of each post, and updating all the YouTube links in the “video illusions” section (you can follow my progress by refreshing this category). In the current week I’ll also update all the categories, and replace them with proper WordPress categories, which is very simple to do with this platform. I really like how the search results appear on our new site. You can check them, and tell me if you agree? Additionally, I’m listening to all your suggestions, as it is much easier to add new features once we have moved.

For today I have prepared two simple optical illusions that can easily be seen in mother nature. You can logically conclude that neither of them was photoshopped, but its interesting how the fluid’s density influences the angle under which the light reflects. This stuff is learned in the physics class in your elementary school, so be sure to pay attention when your teacher starts with “optics” chapter.

swimming pool optical illusion

2 straws optical illusion

58 Replies to “Two Fluid Optical Illusions”

  1. One other thing:

    I don’t really like how the “name” and “mail” boxes keep your name there and doesn’t disappear after clicking away—

    ohh- still with the comment moderation thing- ah wells.

  2. Whenever lights hits a transparent or translucent surface it reflects, refracts, and diffuses. Reflection is the light bouncing off. Refraction is the light changing angle. Diffusion is the light spreading out, growing softer, and losing it’s hard edge.

    These photos are samples of refraction. Water and other fluids tend to refract more than gasses. This also happens in glass – which is a very viscous fluid, not a solid.

  3. Hey, just warning that when i click in the ‘spot the object’ link on the right had side of this page. it takes me to the right place but the thumbnails are messed up, and one of the links is ruined. (i’m using a mac, btw)

  4. the first one really does look like its edited …because ..the body looks more like a man’s body than a woman’s..;)):P ….but yh i suppose its real.:P

  5. Water is so cool

    it has the highest specific heat capacity

    and can break ionic bonds

    and surface temp

    we need to conserve ot so we can take more pictures

  6. just a small thing… the top of the text is chopped off in the title… i think you should lower the font size a bit… and great improvement and illusions!

  7. OK kids, refraction occurs whenever light enters an object at something other than a right angle. That is because the speed of light is different in different materials. Sound travels faster through solids, but light travels slower through solids. This is because light energy must pass from atom to atom in a solid. The atoms absorb the photons and then emit them to their neighbor. It is kind of like passing a whisper through class rather than shouting it across the room. The closer the atoms are together, the slower the message goes. For sound waves to travel, the atoms must run into each other. The closer they are, the faster the sound moves. Imagine lining a row of students across the room and pushing one of them so that they fall like dominoes verses running across the room to push someone on the other side.

    That being said. I love the pics! May I use them in class?

  8. J, although I’d tend to agree with you (I wouldn’t say glass is a liquid) what David said is not as evidently wrong as you put it. At the end of the day, this might be a problem of how scientists decide to define certain terms such as “liquid”, “glass” or “solid”.

  9. Wow! I just checked the search results and i must say this is beautiful! So clean and tidy and sweetly arranged! Second ‘about’ has gone and random illusion button in its place :)

    About the illusions now, the first one seems a little modified, but if you say it’s natural. i believe you :)

    P.S. I also love the fact that i don’t need to put my name, email and website everytime i want to post a comment! Great!

  10. Excellent (natural) illusions!

    New format and host site looks great, and my iGoogle Widget has been operating correctly since the start. :-)

  11. When I first clicked on the link, a feedburner page came up, but I closed it and clicked the link again, and it worked.

    Just thought I’d warn you in case it’s something you need to fix.

    Nice illusion… physics in action…

  12. oh boy the old Glass is a fluid poo poo again.

    The refraction isn’t because water reflects or refracts more, but because of the change from liquid(water) to gas (air).

    This is why things look normal when you look underwater, not all ‘refractory’.

  13. This is weird. I posted a comment yesterday with my name and mail. I logged off and shut down the computer and now it is still filled in.

    Anyway I like the illusions, especially the first.

  14. Haven’t you ever watching women’s swimming? They have very muscular bodies…look how short the legs are, and the back of her thigh… it’s obviously her body.

  15. Hey! i’ve been with you for a long time, man. I’ve seen this site evolve over the years!

    Good job, I’m proud of you! Wonderful site!

    And comment on the illusion…. mother nature is wonderful, aint it?

  16. Why is the above water object (head )to the right of the underwater object and the straws to the left of the underwater object?

  17. nice pic of refraction. but speaking of glass,
    it is a liquid, a solid has a defined crystalline structure, glass does not. if you want proof, look at a really old building, like an old church or something, the top of the windows is really thing, and the base is overflowing out of the holder, and is most likely stuck.

  18. Ok people! No one cares about how light does that to that! If they really gived a crap they wouldn’t be too lazy to read it on the internet! So stop posting that information!! Geeze

  19. what the heck i ma only a liytle girl and you guys are scared and i am not well look behind you boo did i scare u i thought so hahahahahazha

  20. Best you should edit the post title Two Fluid Optical Illusions | Mighty Optical Illusions to something more catching for your content you write. I liked the the writing however.

  21. I taught science for decades, a decade ago. I got involved in optical illusions as part of a section on the brain. I used this photo out of an “old” “Life magazine” to illustrate the refraction of light through materials of different densities, water vs air. This website has some of the other photos that I used in my classroom as my students would be able to testify. I even made a model of the impossible triangle, natually the two end did not touch, but when viewed from a certain angle, the ends did meet. I still collect optical illusions today.

  22. I found the damaged page with the above photograph. The Life magazine page was Miscellany labeled “NEITHER HERE NOR THERE” Though Kathy Flicker was glad that her stint for the story on pages 88-91 had ended, no one expected her mind to start wandering. But while she was putting a big swigg of water back into the pool at Princeton’s Dillon gym she seemed to lose her head completely. As it floated blitlely away, Life’s George Silk, who thought he had seen everything, grabbed this picture of it– a heady example of distorted caused by the water’s refraction. On the other side of the pool’s window Kathy was feeling fine and very much in the swim.

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