Hi,
Welcome to Science Buddies! Unfortunately, I am not an expert in optical illusions. For an interview with an expert on this topic, you would need to find a neuroscientist who has studied in this area, and I don’t know if any of the volunteers at Science Buddies are experts in this area. However, I can help you with your science project.
I found the following book through Google that includes many examples that show that light and distance do affect visual perception. This is a book published in the 1920’s and does not explain why or how, but the examples are very interesting:
http://www.visualillusion.net/
Here are two Wikipedia sites that provide examples and information for your topic, and perhaps most important, current literature citations that you can look up to find more background information on your subject. Check out the bibliographies on these two sites and let me know if you need more information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception
This is an excellent subject for a science project, but I’m not sure what you are doing for your project. If you have not selected a project yet, here are some possible projects you could do.
Here’s a project on chromatic adaptations:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... p008.shtml
Here’s on for apparent motion and animation.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p041.shtml
And here’s on parallax:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p006.shtml
And, here’s an idea for a science project on optical illusions:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
If you have selected your project, please let me know what you are doing and if you have any questions about designing your experiment or presenting the results.
Donna Hardy
