Observation and Perception

"Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"
--Groucho Marx

Something Strange

Something a bit strange happened at the beginning of the class. To see what you reported, click here.

Optical Illusions

Be aware that your brain may misinterpret the input from your senses.

http://www.thisfunsforyou.com/index_illusion.php

http://www.grand-illusions.com/

Video from Youtube
3-D Rooms
3-D Outdoors
Spinny.jpg
Dancer - clockwise or counterclockwise?
71 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena by Michael Bach
Optical Illusions - from YouTube
Quirkology
Visual Cognition Lab video 15 http://amazingillusions.blogspot.com/



What are you assuming?

One must observe carefully, without jumping to conclusions.


Have your professors ever seen a UFO? You bet! Lots of times!
Have they ever seen a flying saucer piloted by aliens? No.






Paradigm Shifts

A "paradigm" is a world view or perspective formed from known theories. It is the set of assumptions that you carry along.

The paradigm shifts as new evidence leads to new theories.

Once, the Sun (and everything else) went around the Earth.
Once, it was moral to burn women at the stake because the corn failed.
Once, disease was caused by demons and bad air.
Once, the continents of Earth were fixed in place.
Atoms are only 100 years old.
If humans were meant to fly...




Pareidolia

Definition of pareidiolia from the Skeptic's Dictionary:
Check out this image on a grilled cheese sandwich. Here's a marketing opportunity; make the waffle iron plates in the shape of some religious figure instead of Mickey Mouse.

The famous Nun bun.

Lenin on a shower curtain from Philip Plait's Bad Astronomy subpage.

Lots more, from the The Folklorist Pareidolia Project.

Penn & Teller on Miracles, Pareidolia, & Wishful Thinking | Yoism


The Face on Mars




It doesn't take much to make the human brain think of a face. ;-)