Optical Illusions

SEE ILLUSIONS FROM MICHAEL BACH
Prepare to singe your retinas with a feast of tricks, from the Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena page of this German physicist's website. The illusions are presented with helpful comments and explanations, so there's plenty to get your teeth into.
Some of the tricks are interactive, so you can alter the principle deception it uses – such as the speed of rotation or colour contrast – to make it easier to observe, which is a lot better than sitting staring at your screen for hours and slowly drying your peepers out. This site really is big and clever, and that chicanery involving a picture of Margaret Thatcher never gets boring.

Most brain-boggling illusion: The Missing Corner Cube. Help!


VISIT COLLECTION OF ILLUSIONS AT SANDLOT SCIENCE
"Welcome to the greatest collection of optical illusions on the internet" booms this website's homepage. And it is huge. So huge that it offers you the choice of two tours to dazzle your visual senses: one takes 10 minutes and the other (the Blockbuster Tour) takes twice that time, which is more than long enough to leave you baffled and dizzy.

Most brain-boggling illusion: The Pin Wheel (right). Stop the screen, we want to get off!

EXPLORE FANTASTIC ILLUSIONS FROM JAPAN
Rooting through this Japanese site is like digging through the shelves during the January sales – there's a lot to see and it's not very ordered, but if you persevere you'll find something that takes your fancy.

Most brain-boggling illusion: The Heat Shimmer Illusions. We need a lie down now, please.

DOWNLOAD ILLUSIONS AS SCREENSAVERS AND WALLPAPER
At Cool Optical Illusions you can download optical-illusion screensavers and wallpaper, so you can ogle different tricks for hours on end. There are also over 140 images, many of which are accompanied by explanations. The pictures might not be as spectacular as they are at other websites, but they don't half draw you in.

Most brain-boggling illusion: The How Many Faces? painting. Creepy!


VIEW MAGIC EYE-STYLE PICTURES
More Magic Eye-style bamboozlement. Eagles, lamps and Tutankhamun are just a few of the images hidden away in this collection of pictures. It's probably not best to look at these at work or at an internet cafe, as you need to be about an inch away from your monitor to make sense of the crazy scribblings. To bystanders it may look like you're trying to kiss the screen.

Most brain-boggling illusion: The Fence picture (above left). Just keep looking...