Masashi Atarashi, a physics high school teacher from Japan, submitted this wonderful winter illusion to the 2015 Best Illusion of the Year Contest, where it competed as a finalist. Atarashi discovered this effect serendipitously, while watching the snow fall through the venetian window blinds of his school’s faculty lounge—just like his students must sometimes do in the classroom during a lecture!
Notice that as the blinds occupy more area on the screen, the speed of the snowfall seems to accelerate. A great illusion to ponder during our white holiday season.
Nobody knows how Atarashi’s effect works, but our working hypothesis is that each time the snow disappears behind a blind, or reappears below it, it triggers transient increases in the activity of your visual system’s motion-sensitive neurons. Such transient surges in neural activity are perhaps misinterpreted by your brain as faster motion speed.
Happy Holidays from Illusion Chasers!
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Stephen L. Macknik is a professor of opthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Along with Susana Martinez-Conde and Sandra Blakeslee, he is author of the Prisma Prize-winning Sleights of Mind. Their forthcoming book, Champions of Illusion, will be published by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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