Light bulb moment or just an illusion?
WHAT happens when you stare at the black and white image of a light bulb on this page? Does it fool your brain?
This optical illusion works best if you stare at the image for 25 seconds before immediately staring at a blank white wall or plain piece of white paper.
After you’ve stared at the light bulb, you should see a glowing white light bulb when you stare at the paper or the wall.
The well-known baffling brain teaser was shared on Optics4Kids.org and has been entertaining people around the world.
How does it work?
According to illusions.org, our brains decipher negative (the black part of the bulb) and positive (the white in the bulb) images in an interesting way.
Our brains reverse the negative image and turn it into a positive, so that the large black area of the bulb becomes a dazzling light when we look away.
SCIENCE BEHIND ILLUSIONS
Optical illusions make more sense when you understand that our eyes have very little to do with what we see.
It is our brains that play the key role in creating images and trying to protect us from the potential threats around us.
Our brain is constantly trying to make sense of the world at the quickest pace it can, despite the world being in 3D and the images on our retinas — the back surface of our eyeballs that receive light — being in 2D.
It can be really difficult for the brain to interpret everything at once so it will often take shortcuts and give a simplified version of what you see, such as changing the information coming in so that what we think we see is more like what we’re used to seeing.
That way, you can have quicker reaction times if the object you’re looking at appears dangerous.
When you look at an object, what you’re really seeing is the light that bounced off it and entered your eye.
This light is converted into electrical impulses that your brain then turns into an image.
Our brains can warp straight lines if an object in the middle of them looks like it’s moving. It’s our brain’s way of making clear to us that there could be possible danger.
Different colours and light and dark can make same-sized objects look different or make patterned images look like they’re spinning.
Try some of these illusions and discover how tricky it can be for your brain to interpret images that are being sent from your eyes.