Questions tagged [optical-illusions]
for questions about claims based on optical illusions, a phenomena where a visual perception differs from reality.
10 questions
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Is this an authentic image of a UFO sighting in Canary Islands (1976)?
According to Wikipedia, a strange 40 minute unidentified flying object or an unexplainable phenomena occured on June 22, 1976 in the Canary islands. The phenomena (object) was observed in multiple ...
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Is this popular optical illusion made of a grey-scale image with coloured lines?
A tweet from Lionel Page (@page_eco) showing an optical illusion recently went viral, with the image appearing in many aggregation web-sites:
This is a black and white photograph. Only the lines have ...
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Was a mirage involved in the Titanic's sinking?
I watched a documentary, Titanic's Final Mystery. It premise is summarised by this Smithsonian Magazine article.
An unusual optical phenomenon explains why the Titanic struck an iceberg and ...
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Are the lips of this illumination of St. Mary moving?
The Mirror reports that a video of footage of an illumination of St. Mary, at St Charbel's Church in Sydney, Australia, appears to have her her lips moving to a prayer:
I'm skeptic... but I don't ...
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Is this dress blue and black in colour?
Buzzfeed, and other social media, are buzzing about this image:
When I see this image, I can only see a gold and white dress. However, others claim that the dress is actually black and blue in colour....
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Is Sandro Del-Prete's "Message d'Amour des Dauphins" a pervert test?
You may have seen this image on the web or in an email with the following description:
Scientific research showed that children can’t recognise erotic scenes. Instead they see 9 dolphins. On the ...
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Is there any scientific evidence that this illusion illustrates which side of our brain we use?
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/weird/the-right-brain-vs-left-brain/story-e6frev20-1111114577583
the newspaper article makes the claim that if you look at the image and the dancer is spinning ...
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Do vertical stripes make you look thinner?
It is perceived wisdom that vertical stripes on clothing make a person look thinner and horizontal stripes make them look fatter.
Has any research been done into these optical illusions that support ...
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What is the commonly accepted mechanism that causes people to experience pareidolia?
I often see cases of pareidolia reported in the news, on blogs, and even here. I think remember reading in Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan that this had an evolutionary origin (i.e. if you see a ...
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Is the "Face on Mars" an artificial structure?
Is the famous image of a face on Mars a trick of the light or an artificial structure reprinting a face?
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