Brain Saver...The Viral plate Illusion Has The Internet Completely Divided

[Me.]

which way up do you see them?
Publish Date
Tuesday, 16 October 2018, 10:30AM

Photo / Getty

An image has popped up online and it has everyone who sees it completely baffled.
The post, which has gone viral, shows a number of white plates scattered around each other.
But no one can decide which way up they are!

At link…https://www.thehits.co.nz/the-latest/this-viral-plate-illusion-has-the-internet-completely-divided-which-way-up-do-you-see-them/

You can escape from politics for a few minutes while staring at the plates

[soothsayer]

1. That's fun!

Thanks

[mr_lebowski]

2. Oh, that's a good one! Wish the pic was bigger though ...

What they describe is exactly what happens. TRIPPY!

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

[Me.]

6. Ooh... Thank You

[smirkymonkey]

41. Wow! Pretty cool.

Funny how that works!

[theaocp]

4. Recimus Maximus. n/t

[dchill]

5. The plates are all right side up, IMO.

[Ms. Toad]

37. The right side up ones are the 3 bowls -

lower left.

I've tried it from multiple angles, looking at each item individually, and the moment I identify those bowls as right side up, all the others flip. That doesn't happen with the plates for me.

[dchill]

44. Think about this: the light source...

... is from the lower left. Examine the shadows. I don't think it's possible for any of the dishes to be upside down.

[Ms. Toad]

45. Caption under the photo

"All of them are turned over," the caption continues, "However, there are a few that are not upside down, and the moment you identify those, all the plates will be turned over!"

If you see them turned over, the light source is from the upper left, not the lower right.

[Brother Buzz]

7. I've seen this in the past...

and I saw it one way, then they flipped. It pisses me off that once they flip,I can't mentally unflip them.

[Me.]

8. We See Them Differently In My Home...Both Ways

[crickets]

14. Same here.

Last edited Fri Aug 28, 2020, 02:23 PM - Edit history (1)

I read as little as possible before looking at the photo. They were all clearly upside down and then, seemingly for no reason, they were all right side up. I can't see them any other way now, even trying to do it. Strange!

eta: Went away for a while, came back: the plates are upside down again, turn right side up after a few seconds. Optical illusions are strange fun.

[Me.]

10. But How Does That Answer Seeing Them One Way

and then the other...asking for a friend...

[Maeve]

11. The trigger for me is the lowest of the three bowls on the left

It's the one that makes me flip all of them, but if I stare at it, I can flip them all back again. Maybe all those hours with the "Magic Eye" series a few years back...

[Delphinus]

31. Mine too.

I love these things!

[tinrobot]

12. We assume light is coming from the top of the image.

Same thing happens with pictures of craters. It's called the crater illusion.

[crickets]

16. Shadows at the top, concave. Shadows at the bottom, convex.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. This again? Nothing new here-- it's the old crater/dome illusion...

Our brains ain't so smart after all. We are used to seeing things lit from above, so get confused by some sidelighting, and without eternal clues can't figure out whether it's the inside of a hole or the outside of a hill being lit.

Here's one of moon craters that had people all up in arms that NASA was lying to us and manipulated the pictures:



And yes, once you figure out one container is one way, you brain compensates to "correct" the rest of them.

[Me.]

15. THere...You've Explained It

But there's no prize aside from satisfaction

[crickets]

17. Brain no worky. Shadow at the bottom, it stays a hill for me. Too weird. nt

[gristy]

18. The orientation is ambiguous because they've removed the plates' shadows from the table.

If those shadows were there, you'd know where the light is coming from, and the perceived plate orientation would be consistent with those shadows.

[honest.abe]

19. The bowls on left are upright. Look at the bright rims on the shadow side.

That would be impossible if they were upside down.

[ThoughtCriminal]

21. That's the way I see it too

I think the curve at the rims is the clue. Upside-down would have a bit of a shadow there.

[LAS14]

20. How come I'm missing all the fun. I stare and stare and they all remain upright. nt

[honest.abe]

22. That reminds me of that crazy Seinfeld episode with Mr Pitt.

[LAS14]

23. I wish I could remember that one. Maybe this means I can watch them all for...

... a third time without remembering too much!

Can you give me some hints?

[honest.abe]

24. Mr Pitt and the magic picture

One of my favorites.

[LAS14]

26. Wonderful! Thanks so much. And it did ring faint bells. I'll wait a bit, then, for...

... my third pass through the series.

Thanks again!

[honest.abe]

28. I think I've seen every episode more than ten times over the years.

One of the best sitcoms ever.

[Ms. Toad]

38. I love magic eye photos

Never saw Seinfeld.

[Towlie]

25. Wait a minute, that site is in New Zealand! Of course they'll see the image upside-down!

[Me.]

29. ...

[Goodheart]

27. I first saw them as bottoms up, but then that changed to face up, but that changed back, and then

back again.

I'm seeing it both ways.

[Towlie]

30. Here's my favorite: Square A and Square B are exactly the same color.

[Me.]

32. Not Doing It For Me

Is there a trick?...

[honest.abe]

33. Here you go..

Cover up the connection between the two and they revert back to "different colors".

This is a bit misleading since the shadow of the cube affects the color. So its just the perceived colors that appear the same. If you removed the shadow, then indeed the colors are different.

Still its fascinating.

[Me.]

34. Appreciated

[Towlie]

42. That doesn't make sense.

This is a bit misleading since the shadow of the cube affects the color. So its just the perceived colors that appear the same. If you removed the shadow, then indeed the colors are different.

It's a drawing! If you "removed the shadow" then you'd have whatever you decided to draw in its place. The shadow doesn't actually exist in the sense that light is being blocked. The perceived colors appear different because the drawing of a shadow fools your brain. If you alter anything outside of squares A and B then their colors would still be the same, but the illusion that they're different would probably go away.

These two valentines are also the same color:

[Me.]

43. Good Grief Who Comes Up With THese?

[honest.abe]

46. Yes I see what you are saying.

What appears to be happening is that our brain is correcting for what it thinks is a shadow and indeed the colors are the same in the drawing. It is remarkable.

[Towlie]

40. Here's another proof:

[Rstrstx]

47. Sure, here's a related illusion

The tile in the middle of both the upper and front sides are the same color even though the top one looks brown and front one looks orange

[Towlie]

49. That's an amazing illusion, but the front one looks yellow to me, not orange.

[jayfish]

35. The Correct Answer Is...

that they are placed right-side up. Meaning you could put food in them and eat. The key indicator comes from the parabolic nature of the... well... let's call them, food cavities. The light in the photo comes from the right side of the screen. The edge of the objects place the right side of the parabola in shadow. If the objects were upside down the shadow would be on the opposite side as the light would be obstructed by the dome of the upside down parabola.


That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Me.]

36. ...

[honest.abe]

39. Good observation. In fact you can see opposite shaped shadow parabolas in the photo.

Which means some are upright and some upside down. See the bowls on the left which are right side up versus bowl on the right which is upside down due to different shaped shadows.

[Rstrstx]

48. OK, so....clockwise or counterclockwise?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spinning_Dancer.gif

(Some may get nauseous staring at this so I just put it as a link)