How the portal illusion works

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This is a development of the barber pole illusion and is related to a few other illusions like the Mephisto Spiral (the spirals that won't come apart), the illusions ring and the rolling rings illusion.
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[@SteveMould]

The spirals that won't come apart, that's called a Mephisto Spiral. Forgot to mention that! The sponsor is Incogni: The first 100 people to use code SCIENCE at the link below will get 60% off: incogni.com/science

[@kippy1997]

Are you thinking of the Kryptonian prison rings that General Zod et al were in in Superman Ii?

[@dbfi01]

The ring illusion is also in the Superman movie

[@mrgreatbigmoose]

Zod's Imprisonment also appears in Superman 1, since they were filmed back-to-back and meant to have the same director.

[@LaurieCheers]

@@SteveMould kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZKygnRjrMigaNk

[@SlickMona]

@@SteveMould FYI GPT-4 is amazingly good at this type of queries, I fed it your question almost verbatim and it gave the right answer.

[@tommydowning3481]

Am I the only one who NEVER before this video thought that barber poles were supposed to create an illusion? For over thirty years I always saw them as just spinning around.

[@zzzaphod8507]

Maybe!

[@chadhiggins8397]

Me too man, me too!

[@SakuraiEvsa]

I also always though it was just spinning tube...

[@ginemginem]

Also the three rings one atop of tge other. For the life of me, I can't get my mind to see them do anything but spin.

[@DwarfDragonwulf]

I see them spinning.

[@Fantasmister]

I'm a middle aged British guy too - the TV show you're thinking of is Terrahawks, the hoops were on Zelda's desk. Also in Superman 2, and an episode of Seinfeld where they're made of tyres, and Elaine's clapping them (I think it's the episode where she turns stupid due to lack of how's your father).

[@qwertyca]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZKygnRjrMigaNk

[@FirstDraftPhilosopher]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZKygnRjrMigaNk

[@bornach]

And in "Hawk the Slayer" (1980) a really low budget fantasy movie

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

_"... the TV show you're thinking of is Terrahawks ..."_ didn't Tom Scott do a segment about this program?

[@talongrayson]

Came here to mention Superman 2

[@_B.C_]

It works in music too! If you loop three chromatic scales stacked an octave on top of each other (C2, C3, C3) going up, it will sound like it’s going up forever. As well as going down it will sound like it’s going down forever.

[@phueal]

Do you have an example of this? Because I don't know enough about music to replicate it myself, but I am interested to hear what it sounds like!

[@connor8703]

shepherds tone@@phueal

[@Mickstah]

@@phuealThis track uses the idea as the core of its sound kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4OQeWZsi8ylZpI

[@MattMcIrvin]

Franz Ferdinand's "Always Ascending" uses this (and the lyrics obliquely reference Shepard tones too, giving the trick away).

[@jamesrutley1009]

@@phueal iirc this is used in the infinite staircase song from Mario 64

[@Nicofaster21]

i never even once got confused by the barber spinning thing, i always saw it as a cilinder spinning which happened to have a spiral pattern, latter in my life i just assummed it was because bright colors + motion = attention, never even considered the possibility of it being an illusion of a thing that goes upwards forever. now the spirals and the 3 ribbons absolutely fried my brain, my brain was trying so hard to figure a way in which it would make sense and ignored the possibility of rotation, the 3 ribbons specifically, having 3 separate ribbons spinning individually is absolutely genious

[@sladewilson9741]

So weird. Your brain just changes mid rotation. I never saw those barbershop polls as anything but twirling until this video when all of a sudden it look like an elevator. You rock Steve. Don't ever change.

[@jasonbenjamin1464]

yeah i had to force myself to see it and then it hit

[@moonrazk]

I had no idea it was even supposed to be an illusion.

[@greenatom]

When I was a little kid I thought they looked like pure magic.

[@randomjoao]

Glad I'm not the only one

[@simonjtaylor212]

Same! I'd always seem those barber poles as just a turning spiral. Perhaps because many of them are old / dirty / don't turn smoothly?

[@peterk7931]

The three rings illusion is the initial cell that General Zod is held in during his trial at the beginning of Superman (1978).

[@mrgreatbigmoose]

Beat me to it!

[@DW-indeed]

And Zelda's "crystal ball" in Terrahawks...

[@gregoryannicchiarico3570]

First thing I thought of was General Zod!

[@LaurieCheers]

@@DW-indeed Pretty sure that's what he was referring to, since he mentioned puppets and Thunderbirds.

[@PopeLando]

Lois Griffin: I don't get this reference! Is this a Spider-Man?!

[@Alienami]

The 3 ring illusion was also used in Superman with Zod (1980s?) if I remember. Its illusion I believe is based in our familiarity with mirrors and reflection; my brain sees it as a ring that fell and is settling on a glass table. These illusions are all good examples of frame of reference in physics.

[@matthewlaffey8360]

Yes it was used in Superman 2 at the trial of Zod and his accomplices before they were put in the crystal. I believe the kids TV show he was thinking of was Terrahawks though

[@thedragonreborn42]

This was the first example I thought of when I heard him talk about the rings effect in a show or movie as well!

[@chrisfecteau1605]

​@@matthewlaffey8360 before they were put in the Phantom Zone.

[@tjp1451]

And in a Seinfeld episode, with car tires.

[@pjames9997]

It was the same illusion but with only two rings 😊

[@jackglossop4859]

In the merchant navy this used to be known as the “anchor curse,” a man watching a cable disappear through an Haweshole could be mesmerised by the apparent spinning motion of the rope, this could send sailors into a trance and cause them to act strangely such as stealing alcohol from the ships kitchen or smashing up a bar in Gibraltar with six mates. My Grandfather was sadly afflicted with the curse and blames it to this day for his truncated naval career.

[@Zhuzhalka76]

Lol

[@JSTKSK]

underrated comment

[@iau]

The 3 spirals rotating at different speed is absolute genius. I could have never figured it out myself and still can't see them as rotating.

[@PapaBPoppin]

Yeah! The three stacked rings is a broken illusion for me (a tire place near my childhood home did it with a stack of tires. Top three spun) However, those three ribbons… that shred my brain. Even after explanation And I LOVE that

[@protorhinocerator142]

Where do I get one?

[@-danR]

The 3-ring thing is nothing, especially as you can see the connection with the visibly turning turntable. As a little kid, I suppose the barber pole illusion was a mystery, but growing up I'm used to it now: it's a turning spiral. But those plastic spirals... the only way I can snap the illusion is by dragging the window down until the hand-held part is hidden and watch the horizontal plane at the bottom of the display cuts across the spiral. _Now_ I can see the horizontal translation of that slice of the spiral(s), especially viewing frame-by-frame.

[@milosennhauser2879]

I immediately knew that they just MUST be rotating, but i could not break the illusion.

[@walshy2116]

Me too

[@Mwstmrlnd]

The illusion is so effective that for the first 10-20 seconds, I genuinely couldn't figure out what the illusion was. My brain just accepted it immediately. Super convincing.

[@thanksfernuthin]

His favorite one? With the multicolored strands, right? The fact you should be able to see them spin due to the different colors, textures and shapes but they don't is the amazing bit. Has to do with them turning in different directions I guess.

[@luc8254]

I thought it was a bunch of strings that wrapped around the two little poles on the side and came down and up through the main part again 😂

[@Mwstmrlnd]

@@thanksfernuthin Yeah, the one in the thumbnail. My brain just naturally accepted that the middle ring was moving the multicolored ribbons up and down

[@andybrice2711]

I still can't make myself see that three-colour "portal" as rotation. Whereas the gold ring doesn't work for me at all.

[@chitlitlah]

It's so effective on me that even after watching the video, I couldn't see beyond the illusion.

[@ardynizunia9709]

I actually think it looks even cooler when the spiral is removed from the assembly, because to me it looks like the top part disappears into thin air, like theres a crack in spacetime above it or something.

[@PinkeySuavo]

Yes

[@futurexjam2]

same :)) illusion becomes more incredible by removing the top :D

[@ryxiewuff]

The version with 3 colors is downright convincing. I thought rotation would be the most obvious illusion, but I straight up ruled it out as impossible because of the shape.

[@FirstDraftPhilosopher]

My favorite types of illusions are the ones where, even knowing how they work, I still cannot make my brain see the reality of the situation.

[@watcher8582]

By favorite I assume you mean most frustrating :D

[@CraftyF0X]

That is the most under appreciated thing about illusions. One would think once you know how it works it stops woking on you, but no, it works just as fine.

[@0neIntangible]

Are some laminar flow rates of spout discharges of fluids, eg: water, mesmerizing as similar effects?

[@oldschoolman1444]

Doh! Dumb brain.

[@piccalillipit9211]

*THE WHITE ONE* just rotated for me - but the coloured one totally looks like its rising

[@blargo]

That three-colored-spirals variation is amazing. Unless I block out all but a narrow section near the base, I can't see it as rotation at all. I also like the changing orientation of the cardboard over the diagonal lines. It takes a moment for my brain to catch up and interpret the lines as moving in a different direction.

[@robbierootbeer8056]

I find a similar thing with barber poles, it takes a minute of looking at then to look like upward motion, if I don't focus it's just a rotating motion

[@MrEDMeaner]

That's what I was confused about. The barber pole wasn't a an apt comparison for me because with the 3D printed spirals I saw basically no vertical movement so in the end, it didn't look amazing, just like it was disappearing into the frame around it (which initially was cool, but because I was trying so hard to see rotation it lost its impact).

[@MrEDMeaner]

I have watched from the start again and realise I got so focused on trying to see rotation that I forgot that that isn't the point of the illusion - it's to make the guts of it look like they are passing through space infinitely. (I think)

[@peachblossom9161]

Hi Steve, the tv show you’re thinking of was Terrahawks. With the cube robot baddies and sphere goodies (Windsor Davies) which played naughts and crosses at the end. I was always fascinated by the spinning illusion too. (Just noticed others mentioned it earlier…oops)

[@aaroncortez5928]

He doesn't look at comments smh you wasted your time

[@EmmaRoseNethery]

@@aaroncortez5928why be such a jerk? He can still let him know.

[@swagsolotl0925]

@@aaroncortez5928 d1 hater bro 😭

[@The8BitGuy]

I saw the 3 ring illusion as part of the Rani's Tardis in Doctor Who.

[@lumpofpooonastring]

Fancy seeing you here

[@JEDSaje15]

Not surprised to see you find this interesting ;) Hope you're doing well!

[@babotond]

that had only two rings

[@chrissturley823]

On Seinfeld there is an episode where Elaine became stupid when she stopped having sex and the men became smarter. This illusion was used with car tires being the three rings. Elaine stopped to stare at the illusion and clapped like an idiot. I’ve always wanted to know how those tires were balancing so perfectly and spinning like that. Now I know. Thanks!

[@colindawson4818]

The spinning thingy, that you mentioned was used in the original Superman movie surrounding Zod when getting sent to prision. It was also used in Terrahawks, by Zelda, she had it spinning around a crystal.

[@solidbronze]

There's one in Doctor Who's The Mark of the Rani too.

[@BolinTobySlothhood]

So glad someone else got that Superman reference w the imprisoning discs too. I always remember trying to recreate that as a kid with hula hoops in gym class

[@hippy_surfer]

He is talking about Terrahawks and its in Zelda's base.

[@ZoonCrypticon]

In Metropolis from Fritz Lang there were also circles, but not spinning like this.

[@BenVost]

I seem to recall it from Joe 90...

[@adacohen]

I basically can't stop squealing at seeing my stuff on your channel. The "ends disappearing into the cavities" thing is actually one of the hardest tradeoffs in designing these. The illusion works best if the helixes are very eccentric and detailed, which requires more radius. But the wider the bottom cavity is, the further down it you can see, so you have to make it deeper to compensate. That means more "wasted" helix, and you can only print the helixes as tall as your build volume (trying to "stitch" multiple helixes end to end would leave a seam and spoil the effect). So there's a lot to juggle when trying to squeeze as much out of the effect as possible.

[@chivanko]

Great models, Ada! I'll try printing those for myself, the illusions are great.

[@darianstarfrog]

Brilliant work, well worth it.. very unique and intriguing ❤

[@jmacd8817]

Ada, thanks for these! Awesome.

[@be12]

Fabulous work!

[@Sinzari]

Do you know of anywhere I can buy one of these if I don't have a 3d printer? I'd buy one right now if you sell them yourself.

[@josephwodarczyk977]

I appreciate that you always show the illusion or physics thing at the beginning of the video. Really easy to show other people that way.

[@CrookedSkew]

Easily one of the most educational yet fun and entertaining channels online. Thank you.

[@szabotudor]

3:00 It was in the original Superman movie, close to the beginning of the movie, where that one guy was prepared to be imprisoned, and he was held by two rings spinning like that.

[@VetsrisAuguste]

@@CheeseREXit’s the same for me. Which is why I knew what was talking about as soon as he brought it up.

[@steinshaw2490]

I came to make this c0mment if it hadn't already. Not a chlid show but didn't it enclose the bad guys?

[@ericpode6095]

I think the puppet show "Joe 90" used an effect like that but that was from the '60s.

[@0xRoNsAuRx0]

@@ericpode6095 Terrahawks (I'm 99% sure)

[@ericpode6095]

@@0xRoNsAuRx0 weird thing is a Terrahawk clip recently popped up in my recommended. 🤔

[@mattcoyte8632]

The kids TV program was called Terrahawks from Gerry Anderson. I used to love those spinning rings and remember as a kid having to work out how they did it. It's kind of been in the back of my mind ever since!

[@hopesandy1]

I thought It was Joe 90 but I think you are correct

[@Bobanderic]

I thought space patrol lol oh Gerry Anderson and your rings

[@AndrewWyld]

I can confirm it was Terrahawks! I believe Windsor Davies played a small spherical robot.

[@ericmatteson8888]

They used it in the original Superman movie as well for the detention cell for the 3 villains sentenced to the phantom zone.

[@mattcoyte8632]

@@ericmatteson8888 Oh yeah, that rings a bell.

[@AdamRobertshaw]

Wow, very cool when you changed the overlay on the stripes, for a second at least my eyes still saw the previous movement, then about a second or so of the movement slowly correcting to the new assumed path!

[@caramba10]

I remember seeing the three rings on the turntable effect in shop windows back in the 60's-70's as an 'attention grabber', the turntable surface was a mirror so it was difficult to detect it turning. Also there were only two rings (as far as I recall) but they were fairly large (several inches across) and made of chromed metal which added to the illusion.

[@ludoviajante]

This is fascinating! Even knowing what the image looks like, knowing that it's rotating, knowing how the illusion works and why my brain is fooled, I still can't see it any other way.

[@10HW]

same for me. I swear there are portals in there x)

[@gilldanier4129]

Me too, it looks totally convincing, I cant see any rotation at all. Got to be one of the best illusions.

[@VikingTeddy]

I didn't realise it was the barber pole illusion. I was smugly sure that the threads just went through the supports 🙄

[@simonmultiverse6349]

STOP CALLING IT A SPIRAL !!! *IT IS NOT A SPIRAL !!! IT IS A HELIX* !!!!!

[@doktormcnasty]

@@simonmultiverse6349 If the majority of us calls it a spiral then that's democracy at work & therefore it's a spiral, regardless of yur pssnig, moaoning, & bellyaching.. "helix" is a foreign word from some other language which translates to "spiral".

[@katiikN]

Crazy thing even at 6:19 seeing the bottom clearly rotating my brain prefers to think that the spirals are just growing out of the base and being pushed back in 🤦‍♀️

[@maroonsunshinelaura]

That 3 ring illusion has a giant version on display in front of a science museum near where i live, Telus Spark in Calgary It's always been really cool to see such a large illusion

[@bob456fk6]

I like the three rotation/wobbling rings the best. 🙂 All of these are fascinating.

[@ImperiatrixMatt]

The television programme is Gerry Anderson's terrahawks. That same mechanism is also the Rani's TARDIS time rotor in Doctor Who

[@Gutza]

Also, the prisoners on Krypton in the original Superman movie were kept inside one of these things.

[@ThePoxun]

I first saw this one on the Superman film, however I've never perceived it as the intended illusion but always as just a single rotating cylinder/attached hoops all rotating the same way. I remember asking my parents why it would keep the bad guys in and realising how they described it didn't match what I was seeing.

[@LAZARUSL0NG]

@@ThePoxun The superman one wasn’t well centred.

[@PhilleeLeePhive]

it can be seen in the first episode at around 20 minutes

[@juniorsav]

@@LAZARUSL0NG kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKaWloSZlNera5Y

[@invidious07]

I never realized that barber spirals were intended to be an optical illusions, they have always appeared to me to be obviously spinning rather than moving up. Maybe if they were taller it might help the illusion, also a lot of them wobble a lot. The precision and lack of wobble of the illusion you are featuring here seems like a key aspect to pulling off the illusion.

[@Kay-bs3bl]

If you stare at it long enough it will start appearing like it moves up vertically.

[@robertheinrich2994]

funny detail: the colors indicate what services the barber offers. that was important back in the days when barbers offered surgical procedures aswell.

[@jakehix8132]

When I was a kid, I wondered how the paper folded back over and came up the bottom again without getting creased all over. Congratulations on not being special.

[@aliquida7132]

I think this warrants further study. The majority of people see the illusion, and since most other people they talk to see it... they assume that *everyone* sees it. But if there is a segment of the population that doesn't see it... it would be really interesting to figure out why. Not because seeing a barber pole illusion is important, but because there are likely all sorts of other things related to this that your brain interprets differently that you never realized isn't "normal".

[@futurestoryteller]

Yeah, the ring illusion didn't work on me at all, and during the cardboard overlay part my brain didn't immediately bias the motion in the ways he said until he started talking about it. It's weird how illusions can be universal, and somehow still subjective

[@mattierenton701]

The barber pole denotes the fact that barbers used to do basic operations. Many businesses, like the one in the clip have the pole going the wring way, it should be spinning the other way to give the impression that the red (or blood) is falling, or dripping downwards and the blue/white is the colour of the bandages

[@thequantaleaper]

That stripes thing is absolutely trippy! You can see it moving right, down, diagonally back and forth in real time and it makes it look like it's just flowing all over the place!

[@herbiejames5637]

Interestingly enough, the Portal franchise itself utilises this illusion for it's Excursion Funnels, which are presented in helix-like graphics which rotates, creating the illusion of vertical movement:)

[@Voshchronos]

Damn, that's true! Great observation

[@jacksonpercy8044]

I've never noticed that! Good eye!

[@arctodus3371]

​@@AlphaCarinaeIt's what the tractor beam thing is called in Portal 2

[@heftylunatic]

This illusion has me in a chokehold. No matter how much you break it down my brain just sees the spiral going on infinitely.

[@hittingyouoverthehead]

I can understand the spiral. The middle blue cylinder is clearly rotating each time he lets it slide down. The portal illusion however, I can't figure out how it works. I know it's also a spiral but the middle black cylinder is not rotating as it moves up and down.

[@Zamarae]

Same I am not convinced haha

[@forsomereasonistillcannotfly]

@@hittingyouoverthehead The black cylinder does not need to rotate. By moving it up and down, it forces the helix inside to rotate.

[@hittingyouoverthehead]

@@forsomereasonistillcannotfly I'm sorry I still can't picture it. If the helix is rotating and the middle black part is moving up and down, how come the middle part is also not rotating? Think of a bolt and a nut. If the nut is fixed in place and the bolt rotates, the bolt moves up and down. But if the nut isn't fixed and is allowed to move up and down as well while rotating, the bolt stands still and acts as an Axis for the nut. So in this case, since the bolt or the helix is simply rotating and not actually moving up and down, the nut or the black cylinder in the middle should also rotate AND travel up and down.

[@forsomereasonistillcannotfly]

@@hittingyouoverthehead okay, think of it like this: when you screw a bolt into a nut, the bolt rotates and goes down, while the nut stays in place, so the helix is rotating and the middle part is not moving at all. Now, if we only rotate the bolt and don't push it down, the nut should be going up, which leads to the bolt rotating and the nut going up. You can try this yourself by rotating a bolt into a nut, while not allowing the nut to rotate. The nut will automatically go up the bolt. Hope this helps!

[@vijhaib]

Amazing explanation! ❤ I'm sure there will come a day when @SteveMould will decipher the illusion of time and explain how the past, present and future does not happen linearly but rather simultaneously!

[@hinney827]

You broke my brain. I've always seen barber poles as twisting, now they're just ascending in your clips.

[@Miminyte500]

In optical flow and image processing, this effect is called the "apperture problem" and is often equated with the "barber pole illusion", but they are different in the way you described.

[@Ezechielpitau]

you missed a great opportunity to include another portal reference ;)

[@upthorn]

@@Ezechielpitau I wonder if that's *why* they named it Aperture Science in Portal?

[@Elektrizon]

@@upthorn Who would have possibly guessed that *Aperture* Labs in portal was named after the effect that is similar to the portals!??!?!

[@ThatSkiFreak]

one of the strongest optical illusions ive seen

[@Ilandria.]

The weird thing about the diagonal lines with the cardboard cutout in front is that it takes a moment for my brain to switch from perceiving motion as diagonal to either down or right, but in that time it actually looks like the movement vector is rotating to the new direction - it's not a sudden change. Very cool! I'm not sure what the effect on the the 3 ring one is - to me it looks kinda like three rings are just spinning and are perfectly synced to one another; is that the effect or is it something else? I don't see the effect on the ring though :( I might need to get one to see it in person.

[@zwenkwiel816]

i had something similar with the circular cutout, it just kept changing from going down to going to the right consistently :S

[@jacksonpercy8044]

If to you they look "perfectly synced to each other" that means you fell for the illusion that they're all spinning independently. In reality they're all connected and rotating as a whole.

[@bdk336]

I think the illusion of the rolling rings might be a combination of how the shape doesn't intuitively appear to be stable (especially when in motion where you can't clearly see that they're connected) and how light falls on the shape. Might want to experiment with different lighting setups or multicolored rings to see if it changes the effect.

[@benoitavril4806]

I don't think it would change anything because the rings are exactly in the same position than if they moved onto each other. It is exactly the same effect than what he describes with the moving stripes. It is akin to a phase velocity for waves.

[@DeadCatX2]

I think it needs 3 rings in order to appear as the illusion. It feels like I see the middle ring going backwards relative to the top and bottom

[@NineSun001]

Ok the stripes one amazes me. As you put the circle on top I could "watch" my brain changing from a downwards motion to a diagonal motion. It didn't happend instantly like many other optical illusions, the transition was smoothly. Amazing.

[@FoeFear]

That's very clever design. Well played.

[@doctortrouserpants1387]

In the beginning of Superman 2, General Zod and his cronies were being held captive inside two big rotating rings. The portal illusions you made are incredible!

[@CaseyMcBeath1]

the wobbling rings illusion I first saw in Superman II. It was the containment area for Zod while he was on trial or something. I thought it was quite clever as a kid. I worked out pretty quickly, always wanted to keep that in my back pocket for the future

[@jpisello]

Same here. I even tried making a tabletop-sized one by soldering two brass rings together, but the solder joint spoiled the illusion.

[@AllenKnutson]

Was my first thought too. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIjSqoWihbSVabM#t=1m05s

[@dawica]

The rings were also in Superman I (1978), right at the beginning. For some reason, the movie opens with Zod’s trial despite it not being relevant until the sequel

[@juniorsav]

Here is the scene kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKaWloSZlNera5Y

[@HappyNBoy]

Fun fact, illusions like this didn't work as well on me back when I was a full-time projectionist. I was working all day with rotating platters and gearboxes and pulley systems. My bias included so much more rotation than usual that I would often default to perceiving them as such. I remember there was a statue of the three balanced rings variety a town over from where my theater was, and my first time seeing it was weird. Because I could immediately see what was going on and I felt pointless irritated instead of awe-struck. I recall also acing a physics exam that few people passed about rotational systems, levers and torques.

[@bonktopus]

its crazy that brains can do that

[@cavanaghcreative_YT]

3:05 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons : Crater 101 - @SteveMould

[@jacksonpercy8044]

The illusion with the 3 rings occurs in Jet Force Gemini. In one level there are 2 giant golden rings either spinning or rotating, but after progressing a bit you see the rings slow down and drop to the floor, so they're spinning.

[@squigbeast7217]

The TV show was Terrahawks. Another Gerry Anderson creation.

[@qwertyca]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZKygnRjrMigaNk

[@SeanCMonahan]

Also reminded me of the opening of Superman (1978) where Zod and his two lieutenants are on trial on Krypton!

[@A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid]

​@@SeanCMonahanThat is where my mind ALWAYS goes when I see the 2 rings illusion. I remember sitting in the theater wondering how the rings balanced! The next time I ever saw the illusion was outside a used tire shop - they had welded 2 rims at angles and put them on a motorized turntable and it looked perfect.

[@KevinHorecka]

I studied human memory in grad school, specifically anterograde amnesia and relational memory. One of the observations I made early on was that when asked to reconstruct memories of scenes, translation and scale invariance were more preserved in the presence of memory errors (even those caused by amnesia) than rotation. In a way, this makes sense. Your senses are grounded in those transformations moreso than rotation. Rotation is the only of those transforms, which, when given an array of related objects, results in changes of their relative positions (i.e. if A is above B, scale and translation cannot make B above A, but rotation can). Skew seems to sit in-between rotation and translation/scale in terms of it's impact on memory. Perhaps that has to do with perspective shifts being fairly common experiences, but I don't know.

[@SioxerNikita]

Evolutionarily that does make sense. The position and size of an object was far more important than what direction it was pointing.

[@Red7Ent]

The illusion that was driving you mad is featured in the original Donner Superman film around General Zod, Ursa, and Non during their trial on Krypton.

[@actuallymulann]

thank you so much for this video i’ve always found illusions that trick our brains really interesting!

[@gregsquires6201]

Growing up there was a tire shop near my house that had 3 tilted tires spinning on the roof, and it always delighted me and sparked my curiosity as a child. A some point I figured out they were just spinning, not actually rolling on each other, but it's still a fun illusion to watch.

[@Aragorn450]

I easily see the three rings rotating in a circle. That one doesn't mess with my mind at all. The three-colored one, and the twisted wires getting longer one; THOSE are impressive!

[@Keanine]

Where do you focus on the rings? I focused somewhere between the top and middle rings and the illusion was much stronger than looking near the bottom where you can see the base rotating

[@davidy22]

Cover the bottom half of the video, you're cheating by looking at the spinning plate

[@3weight]

There was a tire store where I grew up that had the three-rings illusion on their sign in the form of three tires that seemed to be endlessly rolling against each other. Stared at that one a long time as a kid.

[@carlirwinmusic]

The rings form is in the opening of Superman The Movie (Christopher Reeves). The 3 antagonists for the following sequel are on trial on Krypton and the force field keeping them imprisoned during the court sequence is a large version of the ring illusion.

[@deathofallthingspotato9919]

I think a huge thing with the three rings is that my brain can't track both meeting points at the same time, which makes it very hard to convince myself that they're moving together rather than independantly. The fast motion and differing positions makes that possible.

[@aphermion]

Yeah, I came across a similar thing by accident a few months ago. I'm a 3D artist and one of the things I made is a pillar that rises from the ground. The pillar is shaped like a DNA helix and it spins when coming up from the ground. It's either doing a 180° or 360° spin, I can't quite recall, but the effect looks like it doesn't spin at all when it rises unless you look at the top. When the spin is left out, the effect is the opposite, looking like it spirals upwards unless you look at the top part.

[@ksh6737]

Liar, foxes cant be a 3d artist

[@KCBCollier]

The three rings illusion was used in the 1978 Superman movie. If I remember right, it was an imprisoning dock during the trial of General Zod. May have been a different place, or in Superman 2, but that’s what I remember it from.

[@matthewcarter919]

Something worth looking into are affine transformations and how motion in higher dimensions relate to scale, stretch and rotational transforms in lower dimensions

[@Jono.]

I find it fascinating that people never saw the barber pole illusion until this video. I was fascinated by watching each color segment “climb” in a spiral pattern and then disappear at the top as a kid. I loved this video for that reason. The biasing with the cardboard box and the translating points was a really interesting connection as well

[@shailu3003]

I just wanted to thank you for creating such informative and valuable content on your KZbin channel. I stumbled upon your videos a few months ago, and since then, I've learned so much from you. Your videos are always well-researched and presented in a clear and engaging manner. Your dedication to your craft and willingness to share your knowledge with others is truly inspiring. I appreciate the effort you put into each video and the passion you have for your subject matter. Your expertise has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the topics you cover, and I have incorporated many of your tips and advice into my own work. Thank you again for all the hard work you put into your videos. I look forward to watching more of your content in the future.

[@zackOOO-nz9rh]

even after knowing the trick, its still so well made i just see it as moving up and down

[@justinwhite2725]

2:43 we have a few large ststues of this kne in calgary and a few other similar optical illusion statues near our public library.

[@Eclipsed_Archon]

I quickly guessed what was actually happening but I still never could stop seeing the illusion. The specularity of the plastic really sells it for me.

[@browninplay]

I understand all these concepts, but the longer I watch, the more my brain seems to be dribbling out of my ears. I could occupy myself for literal hours with that spiral demonstration, before i even showed it to anybody else - my eyes crave more of this!

[@admiralrhino4049]

I remember when i was a kid durung christmas time my grandma would have these conical spiral decorations on the tree. Id take one off and spin it in my hand, my 8 year old mind mesmerized by the fact that it looks like it was growing, but it stayed the same size at the same time

[@DeviousTomasz]

Nothing seemed weird to me when you had it all in an enclosure, but once you took it apart and started spinning it, it actually looked more impressive to me and tripped me out. I think that middle piece sorta softens the effect.

[@SimonSozzi7258]

3:06 This effect was in Superman II. With Christopher Reeves ❤ But maybe only two rings 🤔

[@GuillaumeLT]

That explanation at 3:50 was mind-blowing! Thank you so much for breaking down complex stuff in a way that's easy to understand. Seriously, you're a wizard at making complicated things simple.

[@SteveMould]

Thank you!

[@FlattardiansSuck]

​@@SteveMould tape face... never knew. Love everything you do. Very informative and interesting. Cheers from Australia

[@kindlin]

I can actually see my brain work to make the downward motion prominent, then as he rotates it, my sense of the bars rotates in the opposite direction, until a couple seconds later it catches up and now looks to be moving right. All kinds of weird.

[@spiritualandangelicencounters]

I also remember the spinning rings in Superman with Christopher Reeve when they were on planet Krypton and had the 3 villians being held in the 3 rings and some sort of magnetic field... These were some pretty cool gadgets thanks for sharing I really enjoyed this one

[@Omnividimus]

Could it be that the specific orientation on the three rings illusion (two on the top the same and the middle one opposite) is very similar for observational bias in the babershop spiral, but in a complete 3D profile? I noticed the degree tilt is significantly smaller from the horizontal plane for the middle, so as the top and bottom ring would logically be moving in rotating direction, counterintuitively, the middle is throwing our perception in reverse for a split second. This view is reinforced by the number of surfaces or distinct "points" having two identical profiles at 180 degrees with the tilt facing exactly away and towards the viewer. Only the lighting gives contextual clues about the orientations at these areas, but since the tilt on the middle much less, then the difference is subdued at the other angles but pronounced at the time of transition. It might be interesting to experiment with the angular momentum of the turn table, different amount of light sources, angles, and color. Also if graphically dynamic changes in background context alter the illusion. After all, the blind spot in our retinas and limited angles for focus are constantly "filled in" by our brains.

[@Shrooblord]

"The illusion doesn't work as well, of course" @ 1:15 -- actually I thought it started working better than before xD

[@nosarcasm1]

6:44 The Illusion I think is due to the fact, that the shadows let's you think, the ring decreases, when you rotate it downwards (to the cam) because the ring moves from the bigger to the smaller looking place through due to the shadows. The shadow is one main component of this Illusion!

[@MizoxNG]

the spinning rings thing is also a background object in the first printing of Diddy Kong Racing for the n64 (for some reason it was made static in the game's reprints)

[@SealandPK]

The rings, the old science centre in my old city had one and in about grade 3 or 4 we had a project to make a diorama of a popular building in the city. The boy who made the science center made a tiny working version of that illusion and everyone was fascinated.

[@lucasbrelivet5238]

The fact that the ring seems to be attached to the spiral and you're holding the ring and it doesn't turn makes it seem like the spiral can't turn either.

[@hermanturnip3984]

I first saw the spinning record player ring illusion as a kid while watching the first Superman film. It appears in the "Trial of Zod" scene. That illusion has always stuck with me.

[@juniorsav]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKaWloSZlNera5Y

[@frankcooke1692]

I think the TV show you're referring to might be "Hawk The Slayer". The baddie in that had a sort of portal of similar spinning rings. It wasn't puppet based, but it was an 80s British fantasy thing and possibly the kind of thing you'd see in an afternoon slot on the BBC as a kid. RLM just featured it in a "Best of The Worst" a couple months ago and it also drove me mad.

[@unknownspeaker4815]

I really like the ring one, idk why that's so satisfying

[@steviewonder9209]

The "three-stacked-rings" illusion was used in one of the Superman movies (IIRC the first). The Illusion is much stronger if you hide the rotating base- so if you could shroud the strange, seemingly ancient device (I'll call it a "turntable" for lack of a better word), you'd have a better effect. Other than that, excellent job!

[@johnkeck]

The first _Superman_ movie with Christopher Reeve (1978), to be precise, though there are only two rings. It's at the very start. Here's a video about the illusion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGjEh4d8npqabtk

[@maker0824]

3:30 that’s a really interesting one for me. I originally saw them as moving diagonally down-right. When the rectangular hole was moved across it quickly my perception didn’t change. When it stayed there for a bit, eventually it began to look like that. After rewatching the longer I had looked at it that way, the harder it was to see it moving how I think it is

[@list1726]

Thanks for posting

[@xAirVsPaintx]

how're the lines that appear to move right down or diagonal actually moving?

[@maxryder9321]

4:16 I think a much better description is that this rectangle let’s us see a solid “object” which stays content in time and moves to the right, in the form of the parallelogram the lines and the top and bottom of the cut out form. Note contrastingly that the shape formed by the lines and the left or right side of the cutout are never constant in time, so our brains don’t see them as a single object moving downward.

[@SteveMould]

I really like this

[@southelgindad]

The three rings illusion was in the movie Superman (maybe Superman II), with Christopher Reeves. I remember it distinctly when I saw the movie as a kid and I wondered how they did it.

[@Red-Brick-Dream]

I'm really glad I found this dude's channel

[@staypuft24]

My great grandmother had a wind version of this it was always so trippy to me and I eventually figured it out and I was so proud of myself

[@RuddsReels]

So this infinite rope illusion was already invented before?

[@staypuft24]

@@RuddsReelswell it wasn’t rope but it’s a similar if not the same phenomenon

[@raymond.duncan]

There was a tire business in my hometown and they had put three tires together to make the illusion you show at 2:35. It was on top of the building and I was mesmerized every time I saw it.

[@joeo6378]

I think a key piece of these illusions, especially the rolling rings, is that in nature there are very few perfectly repeating patterns in motion. That the rings spin around is easy enough to grasp but that they keep moving and never slip, shift, or wobble gives the object a strange/unnatural appearance. There are, of course, lots of repeating patterns in nature but these feel more like a laminar flow looping gif in how unnatural the repeating perfect motion is. You end up with that odd feeling when you go somewhere totally new and inspiring (giant mountain range or the inside of a massive cathedral, etc) it looks and wild and novel. It ALMOST feels like deja vu.

[@eclecticjon1019]

I remember seeing the 3 rings on the kids TV program. They were silver metallic if I remember correctly. On a black base. I was fascinated by them.

[@viewfromthehighchair9391]

Regarding your question about the 3 rings and the supermarionation show "The Thunderbirds". I only know of one other show and it was called "Fireball XL5". You might want to check that one. I actually owned a model of the ship I bought from a neighbour when I was young. Cool ship!!

[@mattgray666]

The Synomium Device from X-Com: Terror From The Deep uses the spinning ring illusion. One of the only animated objects in the game, the silhouette gave away its position if you scrolled around unexplored areas mouseing over random tiles.

[@laurispeterisvejs4007]

At 4:00 It is actually amazing that the brain figures out the easiest way for it to go, but somehow I have the power to forcefully make it go in different directions which is really fascinating!

[@TrasherBiner]

brilliant thanks for the STL's

[@nepaledb]

I loved the AJ and the queen. Reminded me a bit of paper moon.

[@TheOtherClips]

I didn't see the stripes moving to the right with the horizontally oriented slot until you started pointing out the points on the line. I always saw them moving diagonally. Very interesting.

[@johnchessant3012]

These are really cool illusions! The spirals being pulled apart one is still tricking me haha

[@gibbogle9486]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nny9kpeEfJWUbsU

[@SandraCat22]

2:46 I saw a way bigger version of this at one of the Science Buildings at the University here in Calgary many years ago

[@BaddaBigBoom]

Fascinating.