You may have heard or seen the Ames window illusion before, but for anyone who wonders hot it works, Derek Muller of Veritasium is here for the job. Put simply, the illusion involves a flat piece of cardboard that appears to be a rectangular window but is, in fact, a trapezoid. The cardboard is hung vertically from a wire so it can rotate around continuously, or is attached to a vertical mechanically rotating axis for continuous rotation, and both sides have the same image.
When you watch its rotation, the window appears to turn less than 180 degrees, though the exact amount of travel that is perceived depends on the dimensions of the trapezoid. At some point, the cardboard seemingly stops rotating momentarily and reverses its direction. This means it can’t be rotating continuously in one direction, but instead is mistakenly perceived to be oscillating. This fascinating phenomenon was discovered by none other than Adelbert Ames, Jr.
- Seckel, Al (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 368 Pages - 09/28/2006 (Publication Date) - Union Square & Co. (Publisher)
