My son has been playing with toy train tracks for months. It’s wooden puzzle pieces make it pretty easy to put together. It’s also a great toy that helps with his sensory and motor skills. But it never would occur to me that this train track has a hidden optical illusion.
I came across an article on distractify.com that claims that it has people going nuts along with many others toys for kids. For example, writer Mustafa Gatollari talks about shopping for his Nephew’s birthday, and coming across weird looking Batman toys. “Some of the toys had him smiling and his feet were all chunky and cartoony. It was horrifying,” he writes.
“Now this was just a kid’s toy that pissed me off. But then there are some kids toys that defy logic. Toys that make you question your sanity,” he adds.
It begs the question are toy manufacturers doing this on purpose or is it all just a coincidence? After coming across Marc Blank-Settle’s tweet demonstrating the train track illusion, I decided to conduct my own experiment with some help from my husband. Check out this short clip and see for yourself. Let me know what you think. Does it drive you nuts?
Some people have also offered some explanation to this illusion. Graham Powell tweets, “If you look at the starting positions, the upper-left corner of the bottom track is even with lower-left of top. So when you line them up, you are actually moving the lower track up and to the left, not just up.”
Whatever it is, it’s a great conversation starter. But as for our son, an illusion is the furthest thing from his mind. He just loves putting the puzzle pieces of his train tracks together and having his train ride along them.
