Via Marginal Revolution, this is exceptionally neat. But what does it mean if it keeps switching direction?
« Public service announcement | Main | There's millions in it . . . » 13 Oct 2007 08:04 am Comments (41)
Just to test this, I called my wife in to look at it, I'm a mostly (90%) clockwise. (Must have had a brief splash of logic course its ugly way through my brain). She came in and said: "Counter clockwise" at the same time I was saying clockwise. Not anything we didn't already know, but fun. 
At first I couldn't comprehend how it could possibly go anything but clockwise. Once I figured it out, it took the longest time for me to switch back. Funny because I feel that both sets of descriptions equally describe me more or less equally- maybe right just a little bit more.
That Jane Galt is fighting to get out? for me there the first time there was a flash of counterclockwise, then clockwise. I've done it 3 more times this morning - about 50/50.
Very strange. When I first looked at it the other day, I saw only counter-clockwise, but when I clicked through from McCardle's link, for a brief moment at the beginning, I saw her spin clockwise, but then suddenly it was counterclockwise again. However, now, I can switch back and forth, but I have trouble holding the clockwise spin
I can't see anything but counter-clockwise no matter how hard I try...
I see only clockwise, and I couldnt get it to reverse however hard I tried. This makes me right brain person (creative, arty etc). Funny, for a PhD in molecular biology.
metis314, For me, I find switching to clockwise is easiest when I focus on the shadow of her foot on the bottom of the image, and then slowly look up at the lifted leg casting it. If I want to hold the clockwise, I must then focus on her head, otherwise I start seeing counterclockwise again.
Simon, I have a PhD in organic chemistry, but I work with molecular biologists all the time, and they always seemed different from me and my other chemistry colleagues. Could it be that molecular biology is more of a creative, intuition based science?
Clockwise. If I concentrate I can "flip" it to counterclockwise, but I gives me a headache :(
Focus on the lower foot (or its shadow). You should easily be able to see it as moving left - right *or* right - left. While seeing it as moving left - right, look up and the whole figure will be moving counter-clockwise. While seeing it as moving right - left, look up and the whole figure will be moving clockwise.
Note that when the dancer is facing you, her straight leg is her right leg; when facing away it is her left leg. Left unexplained is the reason for any presumptive relationship between perceived rotation direction and brain dominance.
Try as I might I can't seem to get it to go counter-clockwise.
I sent a friend the link in IM and he and I argued about it for like ten minutes. What was really strange was that I switched back to the page and the image slowdown for a second and it switched on me and then switched back.
I think it would be far easier if this was an inanimate object and not a person, and maybe that is the point. The aspect change in profile is something we can latch onto, whichever way you hapen to see it as moving. For those of you who cannot get the change in spin, try tilting you head 45deg. Once you are not looking at a human being turning on a normal axis, you brain is much more free to interpret what it is looking at differently. I wonder what part of this is related to handedness. As a lefty I have an easier time juxtaposing objects in my head, to the point where I can easily read and write upside down and/or backwards. I don't think it is directly related to right/left brain, since I know some rightys who are very right brained, and leftys who are fully left brained by the listed criteria. It is an interesting little excercise though, because I immediately focussed on the movement before reading, so there was no question of my making a decision about it up front, I saw her moving clockwise from the get-go. Why I think the human figure requires you to look at it a certain way is that it is difficult to turn the figure into other oreintations in your mind. You instinctively know which end should be up. Fun little thing, Megan... I guess through all of that I show as way right brained, or as they say "in my right mind" :D
She never shifts apparent spin direction on me while looking directly at her, but I can virtually always force a shift by glancing briefly away from the center of her image toward the periphery of the frame and then quickly back to the center. I have no idea what the significance of this is, but it's kind of neat.
I see her moving counter- (anti-) clockwise, and no matter how hard I try I cannot see her moving clockwise.
My husband has been studying cognative psychology and so I called him over. I'm ambidextrous (sp?) and it was going counter-clockwise for me. As soon as my (left-handed) husband came over he said "clockwise", it switched. He told me if I thought of logic or math I could get it to go counterclockwise and if I thought about ballet or art it would switch back. Really cool.
It's best not to take the right-brain/left-brain : feeling/logic correspondence very literally. I saw it clockwise and couldn't see for several tries (minutes) how to get it to go the other way. That makes me feeling-oriented and impetuous. Except I'm a physicist, computer programmer, and not at all impetuous. Personality typing tests are self-fulfilling; people see the qualities that they want to see. I finally got it to switch back and forth from clock to counter by crossing my eyes, but now I can't do it again.
But she really is going CCW! Here's the proof: She's clearly backlit, as the shadow falls towards us. We can only see half of the shadow of the wide foot as it traces an ellipse on the floor because the frame it cropped. So we should only see the shadow of the outside foot when the foot furthest away from us (on the far side of the dancer). This happens when the shadow is moving right to left. The L-R motion of the shadow takes place just below the margin of the window (ie closer to us). So if you were to trace the complete motion of the shadow of the wide foot, you would see a CCW motion. Unless there's a mirror somewhere, the dancer must be rotating CCW as well. Thing is: I still she her moving CW despite proof to the contrary!
I'm a retired chemical engineer, MIT grad, and a number cruncher from back when we used slide rules. By all rights she should be going counterclockwise for me. Try as hard as I can, I can't see her as anything but clockwise. Now, looking back on some of my best work, I found beauty and a sense of awe in coaxing numbers to tell me hidden things about a process. I'm sure that that was the right brain at work. By the same token, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are very left-brained artists and authors. The left-brain right-brain model, in its popular presentation, seems to me to be overly simplistic, and deals in stereotypes. Take for example "left side = math". Math as balancing my check-book is left side. Math at the cutting edge postgraduate level would be as right brained as you can get. As another example, accountants are commonly seen as being very left brained, but auditing a large corporation's books has a huge right brain component.
But which direction is widdershins?
It does keep switching directions. Randomly, but always in full profile. 1-30 or so revolutions. Driving me nuts until I figured it out. Saw both ways a dozen times. Fascinating, though.
Mike W is right, she does switch. Focus on her right arm, to see it.
My undergraduate degree is in Physics/Applied Math and my PhD is in Biochemistry. I can only make the dancer spin CCW by rotating my head 90 degrees: if I look at her straight on it's CW all the way. I'm with B and Ernie G. on the predictive power of someone being "left brained" or "right brained".
I can focus and make it do a figure 8. Changing back and forth from counter to clockwise!
Isn't she spinning around a vertical axis? So how does that equate to clockwise/counter-clockwise? Looking down from above? Taking a description from physics class, it looks to me like the torque is directed downward...does that make me left or right brained?
Parker, if I told someone to spin clockwise, most people would rotate to their right, so you can assume that this means looking down from above. As for the left/right brain assertion, I think it should be taken with a grain a salt. There is a difference between the left and the right brain and different people do have difference dominance, but as has been mentioned, the simplistic stereotypes that you hear ("left brained people are more rational!") don't really live up to scrutiny. I'm also skeptical that this test really illuminates which hemisphere is dominant. It's a very cool optical illusion, however.
CCW for me before I read the article and thought it was an ad. I find if I left click and freeze the image when the foot is pointing left, then release, it seems to start up CW, but if I look away and back it is CCW again. More interesting, if I squint really hard, I can get her to do a triple back flip with a full twist.
Gang, it reverses. When clockwise, right leg out, right arm out, head leaning right. When CCW, all left. It switches when in profile, doing a mirror-plane inversion through the plane of the screen. Cover the screen except for the bottom foot, so it spins like a compass needle, (or cover all but the head, which is very asymmetric) to make it easier. You can open a few other windows to slow it down if you need to, but that's no fun. Because of the variable switching times, you can see all of the effects noted by everyone above. Man, what a time-waster.
Cool. First, my reaction was that she wasn't doing either. She's rotating in a vertical axis, and I don't put my clock on the floor or ceiling. Assuming that the "clock" is on the floor, she only goes clockwise for me. I understand that there should be no preference for a 2 tone silhouette without foreshortening, but I couldn't stop seeing it that way. I then decided to hold a mirror up to the side of it, to see if I saw two dancers spinning in opposite directions. I did not. I saw the illogical result of two dancers spinning the same way. It's odd. I am almost a pathologically left-brained person. However, whenever it is necessary to turn, or spin, or when I play any spinning game with my kids, I invariably turn the way I see the dancer spinning.
I'm a mathematician, and my field is functional analysis, basically infinite-dimensional calculus. I must have opposite hemispherical specialization. Either that or this test is worthless.
At first I could only see it as clockwise. I was amazed not only that other people could see it as counterclockwise (which I was eventually able to do), but amazed that the test classified me as right-brained. I am an actuary, and several years ago started taking drawing lessons as a way of exercising the right side of my brain...maybe the lessons have worked better than I expected.
Clockwise? Counter-clockwise? How can I tell when I just can't stop staring at her nipples?
Everytime I open the dancer page I will always see her spinning counter-clockwise as my first impression. After a few seconds the first time, I figured out if I concentrate on the foot pivoting and imagine it going the other direction it will switch immediately. But here is the weird thing -- it will keep going clockwise indefinately until I use my left hand in a particular way -- in this case I used my left hand to Control C on the keyboard -- with little finger and pointer. Then it switches back to counter-clockwise. Happens every time. I am extremely right dominant -- so using my left hand must somehow engage my right brain. This may show how mind expanding it is to learn to play an instrument or knit -- it helps develop both sides of the brain. Unfortunately I never did learn these things as a child. It is curious that I will always initially see this image moving counter-clockwise -- which is supposed to be more logical. But I am a visual artist. Your other commenters who are scientists have said they saw it clockwise.
If you see her going both ways it means that you are bisexual.
Not sure if this works for everyone else, but the easiest way I've gotten it to reverse direction is to look at it for a few seconds with one eye closed, then switch eyes. As far as I can tell, it doesn't seem to matter which eye is open or closed; merely switching eyes reverses direction regardless of what direction it was rotating at the start.
How to switch consciously:
This appears to be a test designed by and for men -- her profile could possibly not be more sexually exagerated, even if she were pirouetting on a gun barrel while the opening credits scrolled past. Simply put, ballet dancers don't have racks like that -- and if they do, they flatten them down with a tight sports bra, because otherwise the physics become unpleasant.
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It means that you don't know whether you're coming or going.
Posted by dearieme | October 13, 2007 8:50 AM