Impossible Pass Through Illusion

I’m sure most of you have seen an impossible pass through illusion before. It consists of two plain squares situated side by side, and a straight object is passed directly through them. Like so…

impossible pass through illusion

Since the squares are situated on each side of the pole in the center, it looks like this is a completely impossible illusion. Well, an impossible scenario if the rod was completely straight, right? As it turns out, the rod is completely straight in this impossible pass through illusion!

So, how did they do it?

Check out the moving GIF illusion below for the answer…

giphy

As you can see, the rod is completely straight. Although, it does seem to warp as it passes through the squares. That’s just your eyes playing tricks on you though. Your brain is trying to fill in the blanks, so to speak, to compensate for a seemingly impossible scenario. The real trick to this illusion lies in the structure with the two squares. Although they appear to be placed side by side on either side of the post, they really aren’t. Instead, they are at an angle to each other, and the farther square is angled up. The position of the structure and the camera simply makes it appear as though the two squares are side by side.

If you love the simplicity of this impossible pass through illusion, you’ll definitely want to check out Jerry Andrus’ real life impossible crate illusion!

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