What you see and what you think you see, are two different things. Your eyes deceive you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your senses gather information and send it to your brain. Your brain receives this information and creates a perception of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that sometimes your brain fills in gaps When there is incomplete information, your brain fills in the gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example: a mirage, which is a naturally-occurring optical illusion in which light rays refract to produce a false image of distant objects or the sky as seen from the observer\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mirages can be categorised as inferior (lower), superior (higher) and Fata Morgana, a kind of superior mirage consisting of a series of vertically stacked images, to form one rapidly-changing mirage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mirage can be captured on camera, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the image represents, is determined by how the human mind interprets it. For example, inferior images on land are very easily mistaken for the reflections from a small body of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heat haze (shimmer), is an inferior mirage observed when viewing objects through a mass of heated air on asphalt concrete roads (also known as tarmac), over masonry rooftops on hot days, above and behind fire (as in burning candles, patio heaters, and campfires), and through exhaust gases from jet engines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Convection causes the temperature of the air to vary, and the variation between the hot air at the surface of the road and the denser cool air above it causes a gradient in the refractive index of the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This produces a blurred shimmering effect, which hinders the ability to resolve the image and increases when the image is magnified through a telescope or telephoto lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Light from the sky at a shallow angle to the road is refracted by the index gradient, making it appear as if the sky is reflected by the road’s surface. This might appear as a pool of liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The illusion moves into the distance as the observer approaches the miraged object giving one the same effect as approaching a rainbow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A superior mirage is when the mirage image appears above the real object. A superior mirage occurs when the air below the line of sight is colder than the air above it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This unusual arrangement is called a temperature inversion, since warm air above cold air is the opposite of the normal temperature gradient of the atmosphere during the daytime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passing through the temperature inversion, the light rays are bent down, and so the image appears above the true object, hence the name superior. Superior mirages are quite common in polar regions, especially over large sheets of ice that have a uniform low temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Fata Morgana (the name comes from the Italian translation of Morgan le Fay, the fairy, shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur) is a very complex superior mirage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It appears with alternations of compressed and stretched areas, erect images, and inverted images. In polar regions, a Fata Morgana may be observed on cold days; in desert areas and over oceans and lakes, a Fata Morgana may be observed on hot days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a Fata Morgana, temperature inversion has to be strong enough that light rays’ curvatures within the inversion are stronger than the curvature of Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rays will bend and form arcs. An observer needs to be within an atmospheric duct to be able to see a Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana mirages may be observed from any altitude within Earth’s atmosphere, including from mountaintops or aeroplanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Distortions of image and bending of light can produce spectacular effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illusions can occur with any of the five senses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optical illusions, which may be seen when an image is constructed in such a way that it relays misleading information to the brain. For example, two people of different heights standing on a slanted floor covered in check marks may appear to be standing on a flat floor and thus appear to be the same size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Auditory illusions, which occur when a person hears sounds that are not actually being made or sounds that are distortions of the actual tones. One well-known example is the Shepard tone, which seems to be constantly rising or falling in pitch but is actually doing neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tactile illusions, which cause the brain to perceive touch stimuli that are not actually present, or that is not present in the way the brain perceives it. Phantom limb syndrome, or the experience of feeling an amputated limb, is an example of a tactile illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smell and taste illusions, which are not as common as other types of illusions. However, certain people may perceive smells differently than others do, especially when given conflicting information about the stimuli producing the smell. Similar phenomena can occur with taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illusions can also be characteristic of certain mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Synesthesia is a particular type of illusory phenomenon where individuals experience certain sounds as colours. A musician might see green when he or she hears a particular piece of music, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some writers have also reported hearing musical tones when they see a particular word or image. In certain rare and extreme cases, people with synesthesia may become unable to differentiate between seeing and hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These Illusions provide powerful clues about how the brain processes information. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seeing is believing, right? Well, actually\u2026 What you see and what you think you see, are two different things. Your eyes deceive you. Your senses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-illusions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2406,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions\/2406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rizeldelano.com\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}