Illusions

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Most of what you see isn't really out there. Your brain makes it up as you go along. The brain does a good job: most of the time we don't confuse buses with airplanes or our little brother with the president.

Visual illusions allow us to catch the brain in the act. Look at this picture:

You can see either a fancy glass or a pair of faces, but not both. Why? Why does your brain only let you see one at the time?

The answer is that we don't know yet. Scientists are trying to figure out why the brain looks at shapes and colors and groups them into objects. Maybe little babies look at the world and don't group things- can you imagine? Everything would be very abstract and nothing would connect to anything else.

Even if we don't understand it completely, we can have fun with it. One artist made this special vase for a queen:

If the queen asks 'where are the faces'? you and I know that the faces are exactly in the space they don't occupy.

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