What I didn’t know was that he didn’t just have the show on Nickelodian in the 80’s, he had another show in the early 50’s. It was the same type of show.
He got more people interested in science than most people, and I think everyone who watched his show was instantly hooked. Personally, I use to crave watching his show as a kid. Wish there was a way to watch them again as an adult, now that I could really, really understand the science behind everything. I think the first pass around I was too young to truly appreciate hydraulics or thermodynamics.
Coming soon, as a tribute to Don Herbert, will be an optical illusion inspired by an episode of Mr. Wizard that I still remember to this day.
Think about it, without Mr. Wizard, you might not have been reading this!
Well, today is your lucky day, because I’ve created another incredibly cool video. This could just be one of the best yet, and it will take the Internet community by storm I’m sure… you just got here before it did.
This is cool — watch how to re-light a candle flame without touching the wick. It just jumps through the smoke! C’mon you gotta see it to believe this cool jumping candle flame trick!
And be sure to watch the end, where it shows it actually working in slow-motion. You can actually see the spark jumping down the page. And now, the Jumping Candle Flame!
Inspired by the Roy Lichtenstein House illusion, I created my own House Illusion. I call it “scary house illusion”. The house appears to follow you around the room. I also have a printable cutout sheet, so you can make your own - and if you close one eye, or look at it from a distance, it really works! I’ve done all the work, all you need is a pair of scissors and some scotch tape, and you can have your very own scary house illusion. Want the template? Post a comment in this subject and include your email, I’ll email it to you for free.
UPDATE: Sorry, I just added the sound to help explain what is going on! Please rate 5 stars if you can.
Lichtenstein house illusion in the national gallery in Washington DC. This colorful house looks real from one angle, and just like some of the other perceptive illusions you’ll see, it looks like it’s moving as you walk by. Looks great on camera, here are a couple videos:
What you are supposed to do is walk by it on the path, and as you do it looks like it’s spinning slightly on it’s axis. This is because the part of the house that appears the most close, is actually farther away. This is similiar to some of the rotating face illusions and other perspective illusions. Very cool. Thanks, Mr. Roy Lichtenstein for your cool house illusion. Does anyone know if there are other optical illusions in the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture garden?
This is another example of using an optical illusion to work to your advantage as an advertiser. People are presented with thousands of advertising messages every day, and to stand out, you need something that is so interesting that people want to learn more, even it’s a boring subject.
Well this picture shows exactly that! It looks like a guy is hanging on the back of the bus! The Bus says “Hanging on ’til pay day?’ and has some type of mannequin stuck on the back of the bus, or perhaps it is painted on there with the correct shadows? You be the judge.
Either way, it stand out in your mind, and you’ll be thinking about this the next day, which is exactly what the advertiser intended. Couldn’t this marketing concept be used somewhere else? Sure it could, as long as people don’t get to accustomed to this type of thing!
This is just a pleasing art illusion. What the artist has done is taken blocks of plastic or foam and cut out the shapes of cats looking at birds. Then, what is cut out is placed on top of the blocks.
And then, to make the art functional, he sells it as bookshelves. Wouldn’t this be a cool bookshelf in an elementary school, or a little art deco for your hip apartment?
Now, the artist could have made a bit more of an optical illusion out of this by filling the gaps between the cats with another shape. If you look at the two cats facing each other, it almost looks like a bat. The artist could have slightly modified the design so that it really did look like a bat or a bird, thus showing that the elusive bird always gets away.
And it’s not only bookshelves, there are some chairs too. Very fun. Perfect for a kids room!
I always like understated tshirts. I’d have to be paid a lot of money to wear an I’m with Stupid t-shirt, but here’s one that I think I could get away with. It’s a picture of a turtle on a tshirt. The illusion is subtle, there is some shading on the shirt that looks like the turtle is trying to climb up the shirt.
That’s really all there is to this illusion. It’s not going to give you a headache or make you stare at it for awhile. But sometimes that’s the best kind of illusion. Just a simple addition to an already interesting concept. Without the fake wrinkles, this would have been just another tshirt. But because of the optical illusion, it made it super-cool!
I don’t usually just hand out sponsorships to websites, but the nice people at Neural Correlate sponsor an optical illusions contest every year. We’ve been amazed by some of the illusions in the past, and this year we decided to be an official sponsor of the contest. They feature about the top 10 illusions of the contest, however we’d like to see them all!
I’m noticing that their website is down right now, must be because of all the traffic we sent them! Hah! So you may want to try this link a little later in the week, when they fix their webhosting.
Just search for “2007 optical illusion contest”. And look for our logo on the sponsors page!
I found this while looking for ideas for a home theater system, and this picture just seemed to smile at me. Doesn’t it look like it’s smiling back at you?
Alright, I’m going to hit you with another one that is great. Don’t you just feel like you’re getting smarter knowing stuff like this is out there? In this video, there is a steady drip of liquid into a pool below. Now if you’ve ever seen a strobe light hit the shower (don’t ask me how I know this!) you know that individual drops can be illuminated and the end effect is pretty cool.
But this optical illusion video takes it a step farther, because they actually time the dots to slow time down, or so it seems. My cousin sent me this illusion video months ago, and now that I have this blog for you all, I thought I’d post it to show how great it is.
