Motivation for our Project

Optical illusions are arguably the most immediate and striking visual applications of science that exist. After all, few apart from the scientifically minded will react with anything but apathy when shown for example a sine curve, but present anyone with an optical illusion and you are almost guaranteed of leaving a lasting impression.

This is because optical illusions shock us – they are an emphatic reminder that the sense of sight on which we depend so much is far from infallible. Other demonstrations of the imperfections of our vision can do this too, most notably exercises that reveal our “blind spot”, but it could be said that optical illusions have an even greater impact, as they do not show us what we are missing; they show us how we see things that were never even there.

It is this sensational aspect of optical illusions that has carved them a small niche in popular culture: in fact, children are possibly more used to seeing optical illusions on the back of a cereal packet than in a classroom, while teenagers and adults are far more likely to have seen them in the work of MC Escher rather than in the pages of any textbook or academic paper. This means that although the vast majority of people have a knowledge of some of the more popular optical illusions, very few people actually understand how they work.

Therefore, we thought that our third-year project was the perfect opportunity to shed some light on an immensely interesting yet quite mysterious branch of science, with the ultimate goal of being able to explain at least some illusions using the scientific and mathematical skills that we have been taught in gymnasium.