Which Arch Is Bigger?

Perhaps you’ve seen this as a basic magic trick in a 100 trick magic trick set. That’s where I first remember seeing it. But do we stop there? No! At coolopticalillusions.com you can always expect us to take it to the next level! Alright, are you ready? Explore this first image and look at the two green arches. The one on the top appears to be significantly smaller than the arch below — amazingly, they are exactly the same size. But wait, don’t leave us yet because we have two more great examples that enhance the illusion even more.

the amazing arch eye trick

Still with us, great! In the next example, we show you what magicians, illusionists and clothing designers have known for years! Black is slimming! Magician’s might use black to help hide something that’s a little bigger than it looks, and someone who wants to look a little thinner than they really are might know to wear black, because it’s slimming! So we applied the exact same thing here, by making the arch that already appears smaller black. Take a look below, and you’ll see it does seem a little smaller.

the bigger and smaller arch illusion

But wait, there’s more! That’s right, we took the other arch and made it white, so it may appear to be slightly larger than it really is? We also removed the outlines that you’ll see above, so you can see the illusion yourself.

black and white arch illusion

You know, if this is something you’d like to show to your friends, you could easily print this out and cut it out to show to them! Or just fold a couple pieces of paper in half and cut out the arches at the same time.