This optical illusion has appeared in the 1970s but is still mind blowing until now. This video clip from the Australian TV Show called 'The Curiosity Show' has recently gone viral on Twitter.
"This illusion is blowing my brain," wrote @drewcoffman, which immediately garnered 21.4 retweets and 56.9k likes. It seems that many netizens agree with the man's opinion.
"I thought maybe watching the zoomed out part would help, but it doesn't."
In the optical illusion, it looks like there is a pen spinning on paper in the shape of a window. In fact, it is the paper that rotates. The phenomenon gets even more in-depth explanation from the sci-comm YouTube channel Veritasium. Netizens' responses were varied, most of them replying with funny posts.
The object appears to be rotating against the rotating window, making the whole illusion even more unbelievable. The reason why a trapezoid appears to rotate and not rotate has to do with our inability to properly judge size and distance.
The illusion's creator, Adelbert Ames Jr., is also famous for another optical illusion: the Ames space. It was a strange looking room that, from a certain point of view, made people look either very tall or very short depending on which angle they were standing.