Science Projects on Illusions
Illusions are designed to take advantage of how people's brains interpret visual or audible information and distort it into something seemingly impossible. Most illusions are visual in nature as people rely on this sense to navigate and understand the world. Many artists, from painters to ventriloquists to mimes, use illusions as a means to entertain. There are many science projects that can demonstrate these distortions in reality.
Other People Are Reading
-
Ambicube
-
An ambicube (or ambiguous cube) produces an optical illusion in which a viewer sees a regular cube that appears to be a hollow three-sided room at the same time. This illusion is produced due to the checkered design on the surface. The effect is created by taking the checkered card board stock, cutting it and folding it into a hollow three-sided room.
Bruno's Tri-Bar
-
Bruno's Tri-Bar is an impossible triangle that appears as if it is continuously connected with no end. It is similar to the famous Escher's "ascending, descending" staircase illusion, in which a stairwell always appears to go upward or downward depending upon perspective. This is an illusion that plays with perspective, tricking the mind into comprehending an object even if it seems impossible. Regular cardboard or Legos can be used when creating Bruno's Tri-Bar.
-
After-Image Illusions
-
After-image illusions take advantage of the eye's trait called "persistence of vision," which creates a ghost image of anything on the eye, even after the real image has disappeared. This same trait is employed when the eye links a series of static pictures together to create the semblance of movement, such as in cartoons or film.
An easy project for demonstrating an after-image involves creating a regular black-and-white picture. The type of picture isn't important as long as it is only made up of black and white. Have the viewer stare at this picture for thirty seconds.
Tell the viewer to close her eyes or quickly look at a blank white piece of paper. A ghostly color image of this same picture will become apparent. This illusion only lasts a few seconds before the eye adapts, but the effect is great.
Shepard Tone Illusion
-
This audio illusion (also known as the sonic barber pole) fools the ear into believing a listener is hearing a consistently increasing tone that seems to slip back down an octave at random. This is achieved by using a series of eight or more pure tones played an octave apart simultaneously.
Preparing this project requires playing and mixing the tones at the following frequencies at once (in hertz): 55, 110, 220, 440, 880, 1,760 and 3,520. Then play the next series of tones up an octave at the same frequencies. Continue this until at least eight tones are created. Then play all at once.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
