The Fraser Spiral Illusion is when you look at a picture of a spiral and it looks like it’s going inwards or outwards, but it’s actually just a bunch of lines. It tricks your brain into thinking that it’s moving or rotating, when it’s not.
It’s like when you’re on a merry-go-round and it looks like the world is spinning around you, even though you’re the one moving. Our brains can be easily fooled by things like this.
The Fraser Spiral Illusion is named after the person who discovered it, a psychologist named James Fraser. He first noticed it in 1908 when he drew some lines and noticed that they looked like a spiral even though they weren’t.
Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how our brains interpret these kinds of images, but one theory is that it has to do with how our eyes move across the picture. Our eyes tend to follow the lines, which creates the illusion of movement.
It’s a fun and fascinating optical illusion, but remember, things aren’t always as they seem!