Dragon illusion

Discover how this image of a dragon can create an optical illusion, and get some more listening practice. You can even download the figure and make it yourself, to see how the illusion works in real life.

If you still haven't had enough of illusions, there are lots of sites on the Web with more. Michael Bach has got a whole collection, with instructions in English. While M.C. Escher didn't only do illusions, he's also got some very interesting ones.

What's your favourite (AmEng favorite) optical illusion?


Below you'll find the transcript of the dragon video. Don't read it until you've had a go at the listening!

Here’s our little dragon, sitting on the window ledge. But look what happens the minute we move: his head twists and turns to follow us as we move around the room. It’s all an illusion, of course. He’s not really moving at all. It’s a version of the “hollow face illusion”, but it’s a very powerful effect. And not just side to side: if we move up and down, again, his head cranes to follow us. But our brain has made an assumption about the structure of the dragon’s head. And if we move far enough around to the side, we suddenly realize the structure is different, and the illusion fails.