Things are not always what they seem. Familiar objects can sometimes look distorted, bent, or out of alignment. It is often our eyes and senses which deceive us. Spatial distortion plays a big role in our everyday lives. We live unconsciously by the law of perspective. We know how things should ...

produced the famous All is Vanity illustration in 1892. The illustrator was 18 years old at the time. The painting remained unsold for many years until a decade later, when Gilbert finally sold the original to the LIFE Publishing Co, a tiny cartoon tabloid sold in railroad stations for a nickel. ...

astounds the world with his illusions and special effects. At home in Oregon, which he calls "The Castle of Chaos," Andrus fashions the mind boggling illusions which he exhibits all over the world. The world renowned magician continues to perform, invent, write and occasionally lectures on the ...

Are the red stripes on the barber's pole moving up and down? Or back and forth? You could guess, and you might be right. But it really could be either and you wouldn't know it. Use the Show button, and see what is really going on behind the scenes. Were you right? Now change the direction of ...

Oscar Reutersvärd is famous for being the creator of the world's first Impossible Triangle design. He created the design while he was a young student in Stockholm, Sweden in 1934. The most famous impossible figure in history was realized by a student during an idle moment in Latin class. ...

Renaissance Mannerist — Giuseppe Arcimboldo, (also spelled Arcimboldi), royal painter and imperial party planner to sixteenth-century Italian emperors; Ferdinand I, Maximilian II, and Rudolf II. Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in 1527 and grew up during the High Renaissance. A natural artistic ...

In order to answer this question we have to go back to the concepts of sensation and perception. Let us start with sensation. Our bodies, and for that matter most living things, have special cells called sensory receptors. They can detect light, sound, temperature, pressure, odor, taste, pain, ...

We know them by many names but collectively they are known as Mystery Spots because of the mysterious events which often occur in, or near them. Lucky for us their owners love to show them off and visitors are welcome to come in and see the resident "alien vortex," and other strange ...