3D Illusions

Three dimensional illusions, sometimes called unstable figures, are lines put together to make a figure in a way that makes the image appear to come off the page. We live in a 3-dimensional world. This means that we move from side to side (one dimension), forwards and backwards (second dimension) and up and down (third dimension). A flat piece of paper is only two dimensional. However, we can draw objects that appear to be 3-dimensional.

The most common example is the drawing of a cube where you eye thinks the cube is a 3-D figure. The cube below is called the Necker’s cube and is a 3-D optical illusion because there is no way of knowing which is the front and which is the back.

Another famous illusion of this type is Schroeder’s Staircase. To see this and other 3-D illusions, click here.