This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Last week a new Scientific American Mind issue was released, and with it, our column Illusions showcased an amazing type of visual illusion called “implied motion”. This is where you perceive that motion is happening due to the cognitive content of an image, despite the fact that nothing is actually moving. To celebrate implied motion, here’s a terrific movie of a chocolate zoetrope; these animation machines predated cinema and worked by displaying a series of images or objects in quick succession that implied that the stationary object depicted were instead moving.
Enjoy!
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