Optical Illusions

Optical Illusions

Optical Illusions What is an optical illusion? An optical illusion is like a “magic picture”. An optical illusion fools your brain into thinking something about a picture that isn’t necessarily true. To understand optical illusions, it is helpful to understand how the eye works. The colored circle on your eye is called the iris. The smaller black circle within the iris is called the pupil. The pupil lets light into the eye. When you look at an image, light is reflected off the image and through the pupil of your eye to a lens behind the iris. The lens projects the image upside down and backwards to the retina in at the back of the eyeball. The upside down and backwards picture is then carried to your brain by nerves in the retina. Once the picture is in your brain, it is turned right side up so it can be seen...