Optical Illusions?

Question

Do you think optical illusions is more to physics or biology ?
Is there any science teory which can explain optical illusion?

Answer 1

The cause of optical illusion is purely physics but the effect is biological or rather psychological.

Illusion can be defined as a wrong interpretation of a physical stimuli. Or in other words it is a faulty perception. The perception mostly depends upon the individuals previous experiences. To a physical stimuli the humans tend to respond in the same direction manner how they encountered the same stimuli in the earlier experiences. As we know, no two situations or stimuli's are completely alike, and as due to the faulty interpretation leads to a faulty perception and thus illusion results.

An another reason for illusion is the physical factors itself. The change in medium of the light rays approaching your eyes can also lead to illusion. Eg. The mirage which occurs due to the change of light rays from denser to rarer at an angle more than the critical angle leads to the formation of the image at a different place than the actual place where it should be.

Answer 2

Biology. It's all in how your brain interprets the input. Optical illusions work because your brain can't process certain types of information "properly", thus you get a weird effect.

Blind people who regain their sight interpret things differently. For example, many cannot recognize that a tall building (when viewed from the bottom) is a square. We know that the appearance of it shrinking toward the top is an illusion and we've trained our brains to recongnize it.

A person who has never had that experience will see the building with its optical illusion and interpret it differently.

Some illusions are more physics though. If you view red lettering on green/blue background, it appears fuzzy. That's because your eyes can't focus on both at the same time (different wavelengths at the opposite ends of the visible spectrum).

Answer 3

This is more of biology. Our brains are hardwired to see many things in a particular way - any difference with the set pattern is hard to decode and the perception may not be reality. Some of the illusions are due to a blind-spot in our eyes that withholds some optical information - and our brain fills that gap with some set patterns!

Answer 4

We must "learn" to see and optical illusions play tricks with what we have learned. For example, those who grow up in a city learn to see many (man made) straight lines. But those who grow up in a jungle learn to see only the curved lines of nature. Optical illusions that require a person to judge which line (or hat?) is larger work well in the city but not in the jungle. The illusions involve vision (eyes expect to see straight lines) and psychology (we interpret what we see) and of course physics which moves light from objects to our eyes and causes chemical reactions on our retinas.

Answer 5

Physics

Answer 6

There are many interesting things which can't be filed in only one group. Look at the names astrophysical, biochemical, biophysical, ... .
I guess optical Illusions belong to physics, art and senses physiology.

Answer 7

yes it is physics, and the reason for the "illusion" is cause your eye cant tell if the black or white part of the art is closer so it appears to move since it is tricking your eyes

Answer 8

biology.
yes, your brain processing information to the best of its and your eyes ability, which sometimes are not up to the task, hence the illusion.

Answer 9

http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html
chk out tis url. u can get a clear idea of illusion.

Answer 10

well it would be both physics (light bending, manipulation of loopholes) and biology (brain processes, vision)