Optical Illusions

An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks

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Pub Date Jun 18 2014 | Archive Date Oct 02 2014

Description

An image on a page appears to vibrate, a face gradually disappears, and a puzzling cat makes an appearance in this feast of fascinating optical tricks. Children and adults can discover the fascinating intersection of art, science, and magic in a series of geometric illusions, delusions, distortion effects, and other impossible images.
Designed and drawn by a famous puzzle maker, the book is intended to perplex readers, to excite their sense of wonder, and to encourage them to question the nature of reality. The optical illusions, which combine visual interest with elements of psychology and recreational logic, include many original illusions as well as new adaptations of lesser-known visual tricks. Each of the images is accompanied by a simple commentary that explains how it works.

An image on a page appears to vibrate, a face gradually disappears, and a puzzling cat makes an appearance in this feast of fascinating optical tricks. Children and adults can discover the...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780486493541
PRICE $9.95 (USD)

Average rating from 34 members


Featured Reviews

This is an interesting optical illusion book for both children and adults. It doesn't contain the usual illusions, but goes for ones presented in a unique manner. The illusions and the tricks are explained in the back of the book. A great book just to explore and enjoy.

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amazing book my kids love dit

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While there are undoubtedly some good illusions, some of them didn't work for me, perhaps because I was viewing as an e-book. This kind of book is much better in print, not least because it makes viewing the answers much easier. Sorry, this didn't really work that well as an e-book, and there were a few odd sentences (has this been translated into English?). As a print book it would be good for children and adults alike, although some of the words would need to be explained to children first (convergent, divergent, etc).

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Optical Illusions, An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks by Gianni A. Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber is a optical eye-full. When I started looking at the optical illusions, my first thought were, I have seen some of these before, but yet some are new. This book is filled with amazing pictures. My favorite puzzle is How to Become a Giant. This puzzle shows a man at one end of a hallway with column's and it looks like the man is extremely small in comparison with the column's. The next picture shows the man at the end of the hallway and he looks like a giant in comparison to the columns. The book shows you the illusion and then at the end of the book, it gives you the answer of why this illusion is possible. The only part I don't like is that the only reference to the answers is in the front of the book. I would like individual references on each page saying where the answer to the puzzle can be found. Otherwise this is a great book and I would recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

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If you are interested in exploring a wide variety of optical illusions, this is probably the book for you! There are different categories of illusion and, much further in the book, explanations of the illusions including information on how they work. The range of illusions is impressive and the answers concerning how they work is detailed. On Net galley it was described as children's non-fiction and children will be fascinated by the illusions but they will need a very high reading ability to stand any chance of understanding most of the 'answers' explaining how the illusions work. The vocabulary used in some of the 'answers' includes relatively technical terms which most children (and some adults) will need simplifying and elaborating on to help develop their understanding, maybe the marketing teams need to change the age range to which this is being targeted? As a children's book I would only give this 3 stars (possibly being generous) because children will struggle to comprehend the answers but will enjoy the illusions . . . . for a teenage or adult audience it would have an extra star rating!

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Lots of cool, mind blowing stuff in this book!

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A nice selection of shape, color, and figure illusions with a test/experiment chapter at the end. Of course, people are variable and some illusions don’t work as well as others depending on who you are. I realize this is a book aimed at kids, but I would have liked a little more science in the explanations, or maybe just the explanations closer to the illusions. It will be easier to page back and forth to the “solutions” in a physical book, but it might have been nice to have the explanations illustrated a little more.

I was also surprised that there were no full-page illusions. If you’re going to make my eyes go buggy, go big!

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This book is entertaining for all ages. I went through this with my 12 year old daughter and she loved it. There are several different types of illusions and questions to answer. This would be great for school aged children or even better on a long car ride to keep the little ones busy.

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This is a very entertaining collection of optical illusions, full of pictures that will leave you scratching your head as you try to figure out how they've fooled you. Though I've seen many of these before online, they still entertain, and I think children will have open mouths as you go through the book together. There are loads of them, and it's the best optical illusion book I've come across.

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I remember loving these optical illusions books as a kid. Gianni Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber have teamed up again in Optical Illusions: An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks. Many of these are fresh takes on classic illusions. Some are wholly original, like this one:

Sarcone and Waeber classify the illusions in several chapters, and leave the explanations or solutions for the back of the book. Some of these I didn't quite get until after reading the solutions. I appreciated their explanations, especially as they discussed how the eye and brain analyze color and adjust for what we expect to see. You will be tempted to return to these, with a straight edge, a ruler, and other means to help your brain make sense of what you think you are seeing. Optical Illusions is a very interesting diversion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

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