People left 'questioning their existence' thanks to coloured ball optical illusion
An optical illusion of four balls has left people scratching their heads and questioning their sanity as they try to work out if they are the same colour.
Optical illusions are visual images that trick our brains into seeing or perceiving something differently to how it is in reality.
They are a great way to keep your mind sharp and focus on attention to detail. For example, a picture might appear to be one thing at first glance but, on closer inspection, turns out to be something else.
While some brainteasers make us second-guess ourselves, others are as simple as using a different colour - remember the viral dress that confused everyone as to whether it was white and gold or black and blue? It's incredible how easily our vision can be warped by the mere action of substituting colours.
A new brain-teasing optical illusion has left spectactors doubting their judgement, dubbing it a hoax. Shared on Reddit, the picture was accompanied by the claim: "The 4 balls are of the same color."
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However, at first glance, the four balls in question do not look the same colour. One is pink, one is blue, another is purple and the other is silver.
Each ball sits against a varied coloured backdrop, dotted with different hues on top. The imagery left viewers bemused, with many contesting its authenticity.
One viewer commented, "My brain is NOT liking this." Another chipped in, "Am I insane? They're different colors. Someone tell me."
One individual even claimed to have evidence that the balls were distinctive shades, asserting, "Used a color picker to select the hex values for each sphere and got different results each time."
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The debate between sceptics and believers escalated quickly, with one individual asserting: "People saying they used color pickers didn't use them on the exact same part of the ball/this image is too low res to reliably select a single pixel and get accurate results. These are definitely the same color. It's clear to see when you zoom in they are all the same purple-ish hue. Finally, an illusion so good people actually think it's a lie."
But one clever person explained what was going on, they wrote: "Yes they are the same color. It's called the 'Bezold effect' after the German professor of meteorology who described this illusion. It works because of the spatial and luminary relationship between the colors.
"Purple is made of red and blue, if you put a patch of purple on a field of blue, the red inside of the patch contrasts with the blue of the field making it stand out. If you put the same purple on a field of red then the blue in the patch is more easily recognized by your eye/brain. Put both setups next to each other and the same purple will look drastically different."
Named after Wilhelm von Bezold, the Bezold effect describes how colours can seem different based on their context. For instance, a yellow square will appear darker against a blue background than it does beside a red one, illustrating the powerful influence of neighbouring hues on our perception.
The photo sparked a wave of existential questioning among Reddit users, with one commenting: "I am thinking a lot lately about 'is the red I see the same one you see' but it is becoming clearer that the red I see isn't even the red I see."
