The New Book of Optical Illusions

by Georg Ruschemeyer

Overview

How 33 ancient, familiar and new optical illusions work, with 150 examples.

The New Book of Optical Illusions is a mind-bending collection of 150 of the most significant optical phenomena, loosely grouped into 33 chapters according to particular visual effect.

An optical illusion has two elements. One is the perceived illusion, what you see. It may be merging lines, moving shapes or conflicting sizes. The other element is the scientific explanation or neuronal basis of the illusion. Here enters The New Book of Optical Illusions, which describes the latter — the science of an optical illusion.

Concise text describes the history of the optical illusions and their origin. Some are ancient (like a 3D Roman mosaic in a 2nd-century BC home on Malta) and others are modern (like emoticons and street art). There are rarely seen phenomena, works by great illusionists, like M.C. Escher, and well-known illusions like the Impossible Triangle and the Albert Einstein/Marilyn Monroe portrait.

Some of the illusions are:

• Seeing Things That Are Not There — Discovered on a BBC studio wall in the 1950s, this illusion involves shadows that seem to flit up and down along columns of stripes. Apparently the number of identical lines causes the brain to lose proper focus on what it is seeing.
• Flashes from the Corner of the Eye — The Scintillating Grid is a variation of the classic Hermann Grid first described in 1870. In this illusion, circles in an intersecting grid disappear and reappear elsewhere. It is a complex effect rooted in lateral inhibition, which increases the contrast between light and dark in the retina.

Perfect for young and adult readers and enthusiasts of optical illusions, this is a great selection for circulating collections and retail customers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770855922
Publisher:	Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date:	08/07/2015
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Georg Rüschemeyer is a freelance journalist. He studied biology in Germany and at the University of Colorado. He is now working for leading German magazines, including GEO, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Zeitung, and others. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Contents

Totally Mind-Bending! (introduction)

1 Flashes from the Corner of the Eye
2 Rotating Snakes
3 Zooming In Starts the Show
4 Chessboard with a Bulge
5 Seeing Things that Are Not There
6 The False Bottom of Eye Vision
7 The More Lopsided Tower of Pisa
8 Locals Aren't Always Right
9 Creating Space
10 Crooked Parallels
11 Archimedes's Nightmare
12 Unequal Friends
13 When Perspective Is Swept under the Table
14 Among Giants and Dwarfs
15 Look Who's Hiding
16 Faces Everywhere
17 Upside Down
18 The Art of Tricking the Eye
19 Up and Down the Stairs
20 Impossible Triangle
21 Uplifting Speech
22 Streetlife
23 What Comes Afterward
24 Star and Stripes
25 Shapes out of Nowhere
26 Alphabetical Jumble
27 When Green Reads Blue
28 3D Visions
29 What's Up, What's Down?
30 Switching Sides
31 Natural Fakes
32 Hokus-Pokus Disappearibus
33 In a Color Storm

Preface

Totally Mind-Bending!

Optical illusions are more than merely fun diversions. They also teach us how our eyes and brains work.

Humans are known to be visual creatures. What we see, however, is not an exact representation of our environment, but rather a mental construct that our brains piece together — often made up of confused and incomplete information that appears before our eyes. In the process, we filter unimportant things out of our conscious perception and fill in the gaps to create a visual reality in which we can navigate effortlessly.

In real life, this works almost seamlessly. At times, however, we cannot trust our eyes, because they lead us to believe things that — seen objectively — cannot be. Such optical illusions are valuable instruments for studying the normal process of perception. And they are a lot of fun, too!

This book is not a scientific textbook. Rather, it is a collection of the most significant phenomena, loosely grouped together according to particular visual effects. Each phenomenon is illustrated with one or several striking examples. Main examples are indicated by red spirals and longer texts, while gray spirals and shorter texts indicate additional examples.

Editorial Reviews

One of those books that appeal to children and adults alike.

Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's and Young Adult Literature - Eve Datisman

Too old for toys, too young for booze: What to get as a gift for those adolescent nieces and nephews? Ideally, it should be something that doesn't involve staring at a screen, so how about enticing them to stare at deceptive designs in a book instead? Whether it's jumping coins, disappearing letters, or a mural by the street artist Banksy, the challenges posed in this volume will likely prove irresistible to even the most jaded youth. Others in the family will want to have a turn with the book as well, which may make for an unusually quiet interval in the midst of holiday madness. Brief explanations accompany most of the illusions, building up to a fresh appreciation for our faculty of sight. Gift Guide 2015 Selection.

Sandra J. Ackermann Scientist

This is a wonderful book because it is not only large, containing 200 pages of illusions, that are very diverse but the author also gives you advice on just what you should be looking for and why. He explains the illusion... This, of course, goes to those who have been waiting for an excellent book on optical illusions... A must have for optical illusion fans.

Youth Services Book Review - Katrina Yurenka

Too old for toys, too young for booze: What to get as a gift for those adolescent nieces and nephews? Ideally, it should be something that doesn't involve staring at a screen, so how about enticing them to stare at deceptive designs in a book instead? Whether it's jumping coins, disappearing letters, or a mural by the street artist Banksy, the challenges posed in this volume will likely prove irresistible to even the most jaded youth Others in the family will want to have a turn with the book as well, which may make for an unusually quiet interval in the midst of holiday madness Brief explanations accompany most of the illusions, building up to a fresh appreciation for our faculty of sight Gift Guide 2015 Selection

Sandra J Ackermann Scientist

Too old for toys, too young for booze: What to get as a gift for those adolescent nieces and nephews? Ideally, it should be something that doesn't involve staring at a screen, so how about enticing them to stare at deceptive designs in a book instead? Whether it's jumping coins, disappearing letters, or a mural by the street artist Banksy, the challenges posed in this volume will likely prove irresistible to even the most jaded youth. Others in the family will want to have a turn with the book as well, which may make for an unusually quiet interval in the midst of holiday madness. Brief explanations accompany most of the illusions, building up to a fresh appreciation for our faculty of sight. Gift Guide 2015 Selection.

American Scientist - Sandra J. Ackerman

2015-09-16
A substantial gallery of optical puzzlers and deceivers, with notes on their creators and discoverers. From the publisher of Al Seckel's Great Book of Optical Illusions (2001), this worthy successor gathers over 150 photos, shapes, graphic patterns, and artistic effects—with plenty of overlap, particularly in types of effect, but scads of fresh examples. A standard but comprehensive array of color and line juxtapositions, apparent spirals, endless staircases, trick photos, and geometric patterns to which the eye (brain) adds ghostly effects is grouped into 33 types. It's expanded with entries ranging from 3-D mosaics found in ancient Roman villas to trompe l'oeil paintings and sidewalk chalk drawings, anamorphic images, animal camouflage, face painting, and numerous demonstrations of pattern recognition. These last include illusory "faces" in buildings or natural objects and a block of text that is surprisingly readable even though all the letters except each word's first and last ones are jumbled. Rüschemeyer's accompanying notes are scanty and unsystematic, but he usually describes each effect, delves into its neurological cause (where understood), and recounts its sometimes-serendipitous discovery. Browsers and budding neurologists alike will be dazzled, dizzied, and delighted. (Nonfiction. 8 & up)

Kirkus Reviews