October 08, 2007 at 08:00 PM · Posted under quicklinks · Tagged with brain, opticalillusion, weblink
At first I could only see her spinning counter-clockwise, then she switched and I could only see her spinning clockwise. Now I can switch her spin back and forth with relative ease. What does that mean?
Same for Sarah, except she started off seeing her spin clockwise.
Just a coder. My name is Stephen Ball and I’m a 29 year old web programmer, emerging technologies advisor, tech support specialist, and all around... more.
All content, except where noted, written by Stephen Ball and released under the creative commons license.
Jenn said
Oct 08, 2007 @ 08:35 PM
I could only see her spinning clockwise, and Andrew only counter-clockwise. Neither of us could make her switch. I guess y’all are more in touch with both sides of your brain.
Stephen said
Oct 09, 2007 @ 12:09 PM
I couldn’t imagine how I could see her spinning any way but counter-clockwise at first. The trick I used (accidentally) to get the spinning to switch is to look at her using your peripheral vision while concentrating on something else. I was reading the article text and she switched directions all by herself!
Or close your eyes and imagine her spinning the other way.
There seems to be a definite momentum to the image. Once you see her spinning one way it’s difficult to switch while still looking at the spinning.
Pretty mind-boggling either way.
Pat said
Oct 10, 2007 @ 12:28 PM
Very strange, I could see her spinning both ways but in order for her to change I too had to look away.
Brad said
Oct 10, 2007 @ 06:04 PM
I was stuck a good three minutes with her spinning anti-clockwise, until I focused on her lower foot and tried to act as though it was passing behind/in front of her leg.
Once I’d done that, I could make her twirl around any way I’d like with ease.
donald said
Oct 11, 2007 @ 06:13 PM
I see her clockwise. I can sort of force myself to see her counterclockwise, but the way she’s holding her arms makes the movement look ungainly and natural. I think this is less of a brain-sidedness test than a sense of bio-mechanics test.
Stephen said
Oct 12, 2007 @ 09:30 AM
Not at all. When spinning counter-clockwise it’s as though you are looking at her from slightly below and she’s spinning on her right leg with her left arm bent. When spinning clockwise it’s as though you are looking at her from slightly above and she’s spinning on her left leg with her right arm bent. Both look perfectly natural to me.
Mom said
Oct 12, 2007 @ 03:25 PM
At first she was definitely in a counterclockwise rotation but then I figured out how to switch her. It’s fun to have her dance back and forth.
RSS feed for comments on this post
Leave a Comment