The two images below are widely available on the web but not attributed to any particular source. In the top image, do you perceive the balls as resting on the checkerboard in a diagonal line? But in the bottom image, as the three balls on the right floating, each a little higher than the one before?
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/ballshadow/
This blog interested me because I did a project on optical illusions in one of my other psychology classes and i found them really fun! I actually knew that the reason the two pictures look different was because of the placement of the shadows, otherwise, I would have perceived the balls of the second picture as floating.
I always like looking at optical illusions because it makes me really grasp the concept of our brain and how it can work in such crazy ways! You want to be able to look at the image and understand how it works but until we know the answer to the riddle, our brain tricks us into thinking otherwise!
I like going to those different mind-freak shows because they demonstrate this type of stuff all the time. When I went to William Penn my freshman year, we had a guys come show us all these different kinds of tricks. Some of them are unexplainable. he did some stuff with spoons and watches and many other things. I went up to him after the show and told him I would pay him to teach me some of that stuff and he wouldn't!!
I always like to observe optical illusions and tryingt to see the different images. I used to always like to look at Magic Eye books and try to find the different illusions in the pictures. I think it's really interesting how the mind can perceive images differently than others' minds and how the mind can play tricks on you into thinking you see something different than how it actually is.