I first came across this floating cube illusion via a Google+ link. Seeing it made me think of it’s potential use in primary classrooms.
It could interest children, I thought, just as a visual oddity. The illusion is based on the hollowed face illusion (see Michael Bach’s succinct explanation of this). The illusion relys on the fact that we are reconstructing a 3D word from a 2D representation on a screen. The rotating cube (and the hollow face illusion) will fail in the ‘Real World’ becasue our bvinocular visioin will immediatly reveal the truth. This can easily be overcome, however, by asking those who want to see the illusion to do so with one eye closed. Clearly, this has strong reeferences to primary science work.
My interest, though, is on the cube itself; I wondered how practical it would be for children to attempt to construct one for themselves… a little further research revealed an alternative version.
Peter Dahmen (a German graphic designer) has a cleverly designed birthday cube on his website.
Peter also offers a very useful pdf template that could serve as a starting point for children’s own designs – The Incredible Magic Floating Cube Illusion [peterdahmen.de]
I am now beginning to wonder which other of the Platonic solids could be created. A tetrahedron is unlikely, but the octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron are potentially possible.
If any teachers or home-schoolers out there try this out please call back to share your thoughts and results. If you produce images (or even a video) of the results we would be delighted to share them here.
Please add comments below.
