In Mind Games 8 we do some code-breaking – and feel moved by a mind-bending optical illusion.
Be warned: at the bottom of this page is an "anomalous motion illusion", which might make some sensitive viewers feel dizzy or sick. If you feel strange looking at the “rotating snakes”, you should leave the page!
24. Wacky numbers
So far in Mind Games, we haven’t done much to exercise number skills – but this week, reader Nicolene Julius sent us a fiendish numerical code to break.
These sums don’t seem to make any sense ... but can you see the answer to the red equation? This puzzle doesn’t involve difficult arithmetic skills – it’s more a matter of spotting the pattern.
If:
5+3+2 = 151022
9+2+4 = 183652
8+6+3 = 482466
5+4+5 = 202541
then ...
7+2+5 =
25. Rotating snakes
This amazing optical illusion was designed by psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka. The snakes aren’t really moving! The illusion of motion is stronger if you look at it out of the corner of your eye, and if you blink rapidly. (If you can’t see the motion illusion, don’t worry: some effects just don’t work on a small percentage of people with normal visual systems.)
How does it work? See answer.
- Compiled by Olivia Rose-Innes and Senora Sine Thirteen, Health24, August 2011
References:
A. Kitaoka & H. Ashida, Phenomenal characteristics of the peripheral drift illusion. Vision, 15, 261-262, 2003
“Rotating Snakes” is reproduced with kind permission of its creator, Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, Dept of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
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