Rotating Grid Optical Illusion

This is pretty trippy: David OReilly found that a large grid rotating at a certain speed will appear to group itself into smaller grids, rotating independently.

It appears the persistence of vision effect overrides our knowledge that this is a single grid and divides it up optically. This only seems to work on a uniform grid (I also had interesting results with a brick formation), but the effect is lost when using a checkered texture.

http://www.davidoreilly.com/blog/2008/07/rotating-grid-illusion/


I think it's an artifact of the grid lines interfering with scan lines of the monitor. I don't think you will see this effect if you draw it on a board, and rotate the board.
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I'd like to see it in higher resolution and better frame rate. I'm not convinced that it's an optical illusion so much as an artifact of the low quality animation.
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hmmm. not cnvinced either - the horizontal lines definitely interlace at certain points. rapid scrolling up and down stops it as well. i think we'd have seen this in real life before if it were real...
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