This Optical Illusion Will Shut Down Your Brain

By Dave Basner

January 13, 2019

There are plenty of optical illusions out there, and while some are caused by a person's head being in just the right spot or a perfectly placed piece of fruit, others can really make your brain work, and some can make it go into overdrive.

This week, the Instagram user PhysicsFun put one up that could cause you to go clinically insane. It shows an arrow pointing to the right, but when the arrow is spun 180 degrees, it still points to the right. It's like watching an incredible magic trick and feeling like there has to be some kind of sorcery involved. Making things even more crazy - when the arrow is spun in front of a mirror, it still points to the right but the arrow reflecting in the mirror is pointing to the left.

Right Pointing Arrow: spin this arrow 180 degrees and it still points to the right- only in a mirror will it point left (and only to the left). Another incredible ambiguous object illusion by mathematician Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University in Japan, the inventor of this illusion and art form. A clever combination of reflection, perspective, and viewing angle produce this striking illusion. ➡️ Follow the link in my profile for info about where to get this illusion arrow and other amazing items featured here on @physicsfun #illusion #ambiguouscylinderillusion #ambiguouscylinder #geometry #mirrorreflection #physics #ambiguousobject #kokichisugihara #physicstoy #math #mathtoy #mathstoy #optics #opticalillusion #3dprinting #perspective #science #scienceisawesome

A post shared by physicsfun (@physicsfun) on Apr 30, 2018 at 8:43am PDT

According to the caption, a Japanese mathematician named Kokichi Sugihara created the illusion using reflection, perspective and viewing angle to make it seem like the arrow always points to the right. When viewed from above, you can see the arrow actually has a very unique shape, which causes the illusion to happen.

Check out more mind-boggling illusions at the PhysicsFun Instagram page here.

Photo Credit: Getty