A photo has been confusing the web for years: many see legs that shimmer with oil. But in reality it is something completely different.
Munich – A photo that appeared on Instagram in 2016 has been causing confusion on the internet for years. Users ask themselves many questions: what is really in the photo? Why are the legs so shiny and oily at first glance?
Oily legs or painted with white paint?
A user named Hunter published the picture back in September 2016. Twitter user Kingkayden later reposted it, triggering a wave on the internet: thousands of people shared the picture with the mysterious legs on Twitter.
Kingkayden asked a simple question in his post: “Are those legs shiny and oily, or are they painted white?” The Internet reacted with confusion. Some Twitter replies:
- “Once you see it, you can’t miss it.”
- “It took me a long time to do that.”
- “My head is spinning.”
- “Once you realize that the legs aren’t shiny, they’re just painted – you can never see the shiny legs again.”
- “White color. My eyes needed to focus.”
- “Without a doubt, white color. There are no light reflections or distortions. There would be if they were oiled.”
Some users see shiny, oily legs at first glance. The others from the first moment: legs with white paint. And what do you see?
Optical illusions: how it happens in the first place
The reason for optical illusions: On the one hand, the brain perceives sensory data from the eye. On the other hand, the brain has learned a great deal over the course of life about what the world actually looks like. If the two don’t go together, then an optical illusion occurs, as in this photo on the wall or that of a woman in the front yard: the brain misinterprets the sensory data supplied because of the experiences it has already collected.
Now back to the photo that is dividing the online community – the resolution: The author of the photo said to the Internet portal ” BuzzFeed “: “I had just finished my art homework and still had some paint on my brush. So I just decided to paint a few stripes, it shouldn’t look shiny at all.” This extra tricky search photo from a US national park also became a hit on the internet.
