What is this place?  It is the original Collection of Odd. The oldest, and largest e-collection of illusions has tons of optical tricks, brain dazzlers, mind benders, apparitions, chimeras, mirages, plus a few mysterious, and addictive games. With free downloads, informative articles, lots of ...

Two yellow rectangles of equal size are placed over a set of railway tracks. Our sense of 'rightness' tells us that the top rectangle should appear smaller, being farther away. Yet it appears bigger! Use your mouse to adjust the bottom rectangle so that it matches the top rectangle in length. ...

Named after Johann Poggendorf who first described the effect in 1860. The setup for this illusion is a straight line that passes behind a rectangle. This effect will test your ability to map a straight line across an obstruction. Try the demonstration. Drag the top line segment back and forth ...

An Optical Distortion of Cosmic Proportions A galaxy-sized distortion illusion has been discovered in the area of the constellation Fornax (the Furnace). The recently discovered object was found 8 billion light-years out and measures 40,000 light-years across. Large photo shows the ...

 This is so cool. A constantly rotating blue square is partially blocked by four red squares.The blue square appears to grow and shrink as it turns. Shrink the red squares by dragging your mouse across the image from right to left. As the red squares get smaller, it is clear that the blue square is ...

A rotating blue square is partially hidden by four red squares. The blue square appears to grow and shrink as it turns. Shrink the red squares by dragging your mouse across the image. As the red squares get smaller, it is clear that the blue square is not changing size at all. Now drag the ...

This illusion shows our inability to accurately compare shapes. The two cards are exactly the same size and shape yet the card on the left looks bigger.Drag the right-hand card over the other card. See that they are the same size.Now drag the card to the opposite side. It now looks bigger and even ...

It is difficult to believe this illusion even after learning the secret. The brown tile in the center of the top face, and the brown tile in the center of the front face of this rubix-like cube are exactly the same shade of brown. If you are in doubt move the slider-control to the right to fade ...

It is easy to find the two aspects of this ambiguous figure. It is either a duck facing left or a rabbit facing right. Once you have realized both aspects, you will be able to 'flip' back and forth between them. Remember howerver, that psychologists say that we can never see both exactly at the ...

Perhaps the most famous of the ambiguous figurative illusions. Cartoonist W.E. Hill created this drawing with two subtle aspects. If you look carefully, you'll find both. The mature woman's prominent nose can also be a young girl's face in profile. The women's thin lipped smile can become the ...

The colors on this US Flag are all wrong. To put the red, white and blue back into the stars and stripes, look directly at the false-color flag for 15 seconds. Use the handy timer below. When the time is up, quickly look at the blank white areas of the screen. You see a ghostly image of the ...

Who Could This Be? To find out, look directly at the four tiny white dots in the center of the image for about 20-seconds. Count to yourself, or use the handy timer below. When the time is up, look at a white area of the screen. You will soon see an amazing likeness, or a "negative" of the ...