Optical Illusion Assignment

Though some of you are done, I want to remind all of you your assignment parameters are:

Find an optical illusion. Print and cut it out. Classify the type. Tell us how it works. Write that information on an index card. Put both on a piece of construction paper and put on the wall in the classroom.

Classify the type of optical illusion (Physiological (Hermann Grid and Mach Band examples), Conceptual (Kanizsa's Triangle), or Cognitive illusions. Conceptual and cognitive images are often confused. What is most important to know for our class is the difference between a conceptual (brain interpretation) "mistake" and a physical (afterimage, parallel line skewed by color) eye or nerve "mistake".

What does this have to do with physics and earth science? Light, my friends, is how you are reading this. Human's ability to understand it and grasp it are dynamic and everchanging. Al Sheckel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, did most of his research on perception. He is an amazing, truant, dynamic, brilliant, and odd man. His work on perception, light, and the human brain is ground breaking. He's also one of the folks on the edge of edgy in terms of "the brain trust" an inventors group and other very cool things. He also came up with the darwin bumper sticker with a friend. If that isn't cool I don't know what is.