Eye Tricks

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Purple Cat - Multiple Illusions

Oh yea! This is a very strong optical illusion that is sure to trick you multiple times. Sometimes, when I'm working on creating illusions for you guys to see, I stuble across something really incredible, and that's exactly what happened here. You're going to love this, and I know you'll be spending some time on this page as you try to figure out what is going on. To my knowledge, although this uses several principles of optical illusions to create this visual effect, I don't think there's anything out on the Internet right now that is similar to this. Examine the picture below, and pay special attention to the purple background, and the color of the cats!

Make sure you are looking straight at your monitor, and be sure to look at the balls and focus some of your attention to the middle of the screen too. There's a lot going on here, so please do take some time to explore and examine the image. Let's see if you can figure out all the things going on.

purple cat multiple illusion (balls and cats)

As promised, this illusion is multiple illusions, all packed into one picture. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for the truth, because I may lie to you a few times in order to derive maximum entertainment as you go through this illusion.... this is going to be fun!!!

To have the most fun with this illusion, first, examine the cats A, B, and C.

1) Obviously, Cat A and Cat B are the same shade of purple.

2) Obviously, the background has a nice gradient and gradually changes from dark purple on the left, to a light purple on the right.

3) Cat C is the same shade as the purple background on the left of the illusion.

4) BUT WAIT - If Cat A and B are the same shade, how come the solid bar that Cat A is hanging from is the same color as the background behind Cat B. If Cat A is truly the exact same color as the bar (as you can see it is, where it connects to the cat's tail) then that must be impossible, because then Cat B would be invisible, if it was the same color as the background on this side. How can this possibly happen?!?!?!

OKAY, many of the above were lies, and I do hope you read each of them and studied them. Now for the truth about this wonderful illusion. Which, if you are fooled, make me a promise --- link to this picture from your blog --- or at least email it to three friends -- okay? I really want to spread this around! Thanks!

Remember, that's the deal. If you are fooled by this illusion, then you'll link to it. If however, you were following along and you were NOT fooled, then you should email me and harass me for wasting your time!

The truth:

1) Cat A and B are NOT the same shade of purple. Cat A is much lighter, and B is much darker.

2) The background is the same solid purple throughout the image. If you want to verify this, use your hands or a peice of paper to cover up the last two circlesand you'll see the the perceived gradient disappears!!

3) Well okay, this was done to throw you off. Cat C is darker than Cat A or B, but since the background is the same shade, I, master optical illusion artist Scott Henderson made Cat C to appear to be the same shade as the right side (or even a little darker, depending on your eyes, how big your screen is, etc.) It's actually much darker than the right side.

4) Ahhh yes, the ones above will fool about 99% of people, but if you're sitting there saying, I am not fooled! I am not going to email anyone. I'm going to look athe other illusions around your site.... WAIT... You see, the reason that Cat A appears to be the same shade as the right side of the background is because that "solid" bar that Cat A is hanging from is actually a bar where the gradient changes. I matched the gradient of that bar to appear to be the same color, to cancel out the illusion of the background, but that bar actually goes from a light purple on the left (the same shade as Cat A, to slowly blend into the background color (which by now you know is the same throughout the image).

Got it? Are you confused. Isn't this a wonderful thing? Didn't I promise multiple illusions and a promise that you'd be fooled? I even fooled myself.

Now, follow up on your end of the promise, and grab the URL (the link to this page) and email it to all your best friends. Perhaps you could even make a small wager with them that they too will be fooled, and you can get a free dinner out of the deal!!

P.S. You can use this image as background on your computer too!

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