I was going through an interesting piece of research work on coding guidelines by an avid slashdoter here when I bumped into the original pictures of the “Thatcher effect” (he used this as an illustration to build his argument on software coding guidelines).

The ever rolling wagon that I was, my curiosity turned to optical illusions and I came across some interesting compilation work by Michael Bach, who has done a fabulous job in putting together around 60 of the popular illusions, along with their origins in some cases.

I began developing an interest in illusions that are simple and drive the point home easily, without requiring that the viewer break his head to decode it.

Here are my favorites. :
* Jesus on a blank wheel



Stare at the 3 dots for 30 seconds.
Then, look at a light colored wall and start blinking your eyes. If it is too vague, try blinking your eyes a little bit faster. What do you see ?

* Thatcher effect



Reverse the picture and see .

* Straight line effect



Which line lines up with line C - A or B?

*inequality effect