The Tower of Cubes, the spectacular optical illusion that everyone can see

Our eyes don’t deceive us, but our brain interprets what they see, in its own way. Thanks to this we can enjoy curious optical illusions like this one.

Is called The Cube Toweris the work of John Salmon, and has won the second prize in the contest of the Best optical illusion of 2023.

Every year several experts choose the 10 best optical illusions, which the fans submit to a contest.

This contest is carried out by the Neural Correlation Society, a non-profit organization that aims to promote scientific research on the neural mechanisms of perception and cognition. It is made up of perception scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists and artists.

This year has won Platform 9 3/4s, inspired by one of the most beloved scenes from the Harry Potter books and movies. You can see it on this card:

The rest of the candidates are available at the contest website.

In second position has been a optical illusion which is also very spectacular, because everyone can see it effortlessly.

The Tower of Cubes tricks your brain

Many optical illusions are difficult to visualize. You have to squint, hold your head a certain way, and other weird stuff. One of the keys that the jury has valued is that The Tower of Cubes is seen by everyone.

You can see for yourself in this video:

As we can see, at the beginning there is a tower of cubes already formed. One hand is placing three cubes one on top of the other, to create a second identical tower.

It’s a little mind trick, since is trying to convince us that the two towers are the sameand are made up of 3 cubes.

He even sticks a stick inside both towers. But if you look closely, in the tower on the right the stick does “strange” things.

The optical illusion is revealed when disassembling the second tower, since it is not made up of cubes, but of irregular figures:

The explanation is in the simple perspective. The pieces of the second tower are designed so that, from the camera angle, they look like cubes. If the camera could be moved, the perspective would change, and the illusion would disappear.

A optical illusion simple that has won the second prize in the contest Best Optical Illusion of 2023thanks to its good implementation and perfect execution.