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Optical Illusion: Are These Circles Moving or Not?

Arrows can fool your brain into perceiving motion when there is none

By Rain Noe - December 1, 2020

in Visual Communication

Just when you think you've seen it all in optical illusions, comes this one:

The only motion happening here is that the circles are rotating. They're not growing and shrinking, nor changing position. "The human brain is so simple," writes the original poster on Twitter, "that it can be confused by arrows."

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Nick LiCausi

4 years ago

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the thread has some great examples of it actually moving. https://twitter.com/Jakesaurius/status/1331542934056001536

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Ad Absurdum

4 years ago

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I don't think this is an optical illusion. Cover the arrows with your fingers and you'll see the circles are actually moving around, not just rotating. You can use your finger to compare the distance between the circles and see it change over time.

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- Dan Farrow
  
  Ad Absurdum
  
  4 years ago
  
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  Yes the arrows are irrelevant to the illusion, but no it's only the thin edges of each ring that are changing position in relation to the rings. That's what causes the illusion of constant motion in a certain direction, and very cool it is too!
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