YESTERDAY, BBC ACADEMY’S Marc Blank-Settle posted the following video of his toddler’s train track and melted the internet’s brain.
In the video, he shows two tracks side by side. One piece looks noticeably larger than the other, but when you stack them on top of one another, they appear to be the same size.
What is this sorcery?
If you can’t view the video, please click here.
It doesn’t make any sense!
The video quickly went viral and people were thoroughly spooked.
So what is the deal? Are our eyes merely deceiving us?
In a word, yes.
Blank-Settle later clarified that it’s down to something called the Jastrow Illusion, which is explained as thus:
The lower figure seems distinctly the larger, because its long side is brought into contrast with the shorter side of the other figure.
Like so.
You learn something new every day, huh?
