Duck or rabbit?
Anonymous artist; later studied by Joseph Jastrow
A beak becomes a pair of ears. Nothing in the drawing changes.
Ambiguous figures / 2003
Spinning dancer
A silhouette can seem to spin in either direction.
TRY THIS
Press Play and watch the feet. Try to reinterpret which leg is nearer to you. The apparent rotation can reverse without the animation changing.
FOLLOW THE SOURCES
History, evidence & image credit
THE IMAGE IN THIS ARCHIVE
Nobuyuki Kayahara
Original file & attribution · CC BY-SA 3.0
Original image downloaded from Wikimedia Commons; the downloaded file is unchanged. Gallery previews may be resized or converted to WebP; animated previews show the first frame.
Download imageFrequently asked questions
What is Spinning dancer?
A silhouette can seem to spin in either direction.
What should I look for in Spinning dancer?
Press Play and watch the feet. Try to reinterpret which leg is nearer to you. The apparent rotation can reverse without the animation changing.
What explains Spinning dancer?
A silhouette leaves out many depth cues. Different interpretations of which side faces the viewer yield opposite perceived directions of rotation. Perspective and viewing-from-above biases can affect the initial interpretation.
