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Illusions (Season 2)

3 episodes 98%4KCC

Mind-bending images expose how the brain constructs the world you see.

Professor Art Shapiro guides you through a fresh collection of visual illusions, from ambiguous figures and impossible objects to perspective tricks that change with a single viewpoint. As familiar images flip, rotate, and defy common sense, you discover how perception is built and why the brain can be so easily misled. Sign up to see the science behind every surprise.

Episode guide

3 episodes
1
1Ambiguous Images
Professor Shapiro shows us how some images can prompt two, or even three, equally valid interpretations. Rather than settling on one interpretation, our brains tend to switch among all of them—leading to some baffling and astonishing visual experiences.
11 min
2
2Impossible Objects
Professor Shapiro shows us a range of objects that seem simple and unremarkable at first glance, but which on closer examination simply cannot be constructed in reality—or are not at all what they seem.
10 min
3
3Perspective Games
Professor Shapiro reaches back into history to show that artists, architects and mathematicians have also employed visual “tricks” to baffle and entertain us by manipulating perspective and challenging our ideas of what is real and what is fake.
11 min
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