101 Amazing Optical Illusions

You won't believe your eyes! How could you possibly be seeing a hole in your hand, solid objects that don't exist, or straight lines standing up and making a carpet fly? They're optical illusions -- images that trick and deceive you.

Fantastic Visual Tricks

To make any of the 101 projects shown here in full color, you just need ordinary materials like paper, glue, scissors, pencils, and a ruler. Yet with these simple things you can put a bird in a cage without touching it; break a spoon and put it back together without glue; make ghostly shapes appear and disappear; turn one picture into two; and make objects change color. Use magazine clippings or your own drawings to get a whale to swim, a kangaroo to jump, or a ballerina to dance.

Several different kinds of illusions (physiological illusions, e.g., afterimages; physical illusions, e.g., the result of refraction or reflection; perceptual illusions, e.g., ambiguous pictures; etc.) are explored in this large full-color volume that contains more than the 101 examples of the title. Jennings includes directions for making a number of demonstrations and optical toys. Seymour Simon's The Optical Illusion Book (1984) is still the standard - but this is an attractive introduction to the subject for those who want the ``wow'' without the ``why'' in any great detail.

See also: Eluzions Book Shop, Illusions