This Optical Illusion Shows How Our Brain Interprets Color
From Deep Look
1 min3rd4th5th6thScience
Summary
A clever color illusion tricks your eyes into seeing two identical patches as totally different colors. Deep Look shows that what you 'see' is really your brain making its best guess.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
Your eyes send signals about light to your brain, but the brain interprets those signals using clues like nearby colors and shadows. An optical illusion works by fooling that guesswork, so you can 'see' a color that isn't really there.
- What do your eyes send to your brain when you look at something?
- How can two identical colors look different to us?
- Why does an illusion prove your brain 'decides' what you see?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: illusion, light, brain, interpret.
Try it: Look at a color illusion, then cover everything except the two patches. Write what changed and why your brain was fooled.