Chess Pieces Lightness Illusion

Color 26 February 2016 0 Comments

Chess Pieces Lightness Illusion

Today’s illusion is from an article written by Barton L. Anderson and Jonathan Winawer and published in Nature (the international weekly journal of science).  Remarkably, the chess pieces on the top and bottom images are identical!  It may seem hard to believe, but it is true. When surrounded by a dark color (like the top […]

Angel Columns at the Phaeno Science Center

Ambiguous 19 September 2013 0 Comments

Angel Columns at the Phaeno Science Center

This photograph, taken at the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany, shows a very strange set of columns.  They look like they could be pieces for a very large chess set.  These particular columns are unique because they also have an alternate meaning – the spaces between the columns appear to resemble human figures. This […]

The Impossible Paintings of Sandro Del-Prete

Impossible 21 June 2013 0 Comments

Sandro Del-Prete - The Warped Chessboard

Swiss artist Sandro Del-Prete is a master at painting beautifully-impossible scenes.  As a young man, he attended the Florence Academy of Art.  While in Florence, he began to discover and appreciate the works of Old Masters such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt.  Today, his works have been featured in exhibitions in Switzerland, Japan, and […]

The Way to the Top

Impossible 12 November 2012 0 Comments

The Way to the Top by Erik Minnema

Impossible scenes are always welcome on this site.  We have previously featured impossible items such as triangles, stairs, nuts and tennis courts.  The following photograph represents an impossible chess board.  The modified board appears to be a flat surface.  But something is odd about it.  The pawn in the lower left corner looks as if […]