Make an optical illusion
This optical illusion lets you turn two pictures into one!
What you need:
- white cardboard
- pencils and colouring pens
- scissors
- glue/sellotape
Instructions
- Cut out a circle from a sheet of white cardboard.
- Draw a birdcage on one side and a parrot on the other.
- Glue or sellotape a pencil to the bottom of the circle.
- Hold the pencil between your palms and rub your hands to make the picture spin around.
The Science bit
The bird should look like it is inside the cage when you spin the picture around. This is because the picture is spinning too fast for our brain and eyes to be able to separate the two.
This is the same concept used for making cartoons, still pictures are moved very quickly to create an illusion of movement.
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Oh fantastic, simple but know William will loveit!
This is an old favourite. When the flicker rate is high enough, the brain starts to blend the two images so we see the bird in the cage. Wonderful. How sad it would be if this were not so. Seeing a movie would become a series of still images.
Ross Mannell (teacher)
Australia
Hi saw you on linky party, what a great project for the kids! Now google following, would love it if you popped by, Karima
http://www.karimascrafts.com
Interesting. Thank you so much for linking up to Upcycled Awesome at http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com
Kids love this one! Thanks for sharing. Saw you at For the Kids Fridays.
Totally doing this one! I want to do this myself. Thank you for sharing.
So glad you liked it! x
Great fun! Love it when science and play go together.
Thank you. x
You have such fascinating ideas! Thank you for sharing this on The Sunday Showcase!
thanks for bringing back memories of childhood science projects! my boys will LOVE this one, and I’m quite sure will run to school with it! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!
Thanks for sharing this with the Play Academy – great to see the video showing how it really works.