Optical illusion: the spinning girl

December 23rd, 2007 | by Sol |

Here’s an optical illusion that’s making its way around the net and has now become my very favorite illusion. Look at the animated gif below. What direction is the girl spinning in, clockwise or counterclockwise? Can you make her change directions with your mind? Can you see her spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise at will? What is going on?

Spinning girl optical illusion

I don’t know who to credit since there are lots of copies of this image around. The first one I found was here.  That web-site and a number of others you can find via this Google search claim that this is a right brain vs. left brain test but not everyone agrees about what is going on here. You can read more about lateralization of the brain (the functions of the two sides of the brain) in this Wikipedia article.

If you like optical illusions, check out Might Optical Illusions, a pretty comprehensive collection of such things in a blog format. This site even has an Optical Illusion of The Day Widget so say can effortlessly get your daily fix.

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  1. 48 Responses to “Optical illusion: the spinning girl”

  2. By Making Sales Making Money on Dec 27, 2007 | Reply

    Dont know how that works but its cool, a slight glance to either side and she spins another direction

  3. By Matthai on Jan 5, 2008 | Reply

    It is not an illusion. Note that she sometimes
    stands on the right leg and sometimes on the left leg.

  4. By Josh on Jan 5, 2008 | Reply

    I noticed that if I read she spins counter clockwise and when I think about the multiplication table she spins clockwise. (I can’t be looking directly at her when she changes)

  5. By steve on Feb 3, 2008 | Reply

    if you watch you will see the screen flash for about 1 Millasecond and she changes direction…but dont focus to hard or youl miss it..

  6. By Sol on Feb 5, 2008 | Reply

    Steve,

    I can actually make her change directions with my mind.

  7. By Dr.Awesome on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    Me and my friend were looking at this and we both saw her spinning different ways at the same time. I normally can get her to change direction by reading something and then looking back, or kinda watching it as i read.

  8. By ivolicious on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    She didn’t have nipples the first time I saw it!

  9. By BoggyWoggy on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    Ugh…that’s part of the illusion! You “see” her legs change. Concentrate on her shadow ONLY and you can manipulate the direction…

  10. By Josh on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    I’ve seen this “illusion” many, many times.

    By my eye, she stands on her left leg the entire time. If you stare at the entire leg you will notice it is always attached to the left side of her body, no matter how she’s spinning. The planted foot is curved just like a left foot.

    I’m convinced all of you that see something different are entirely crazy.

  11. By Lex on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    I can’t get her to change. What the hell does that mean?

  12. By Gerald on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    I’ve seen this so many times it no longer looks as though she’s turning, it simply appears that she’s starting from facing to her left, rotating right 180 degrees, then back again, over and over.

  13. By ruffus on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    your all nuts
    she’s only going clockwise and standing on her left leg. If you see anything other than THAT, see a shrink cause you got issues!

  14. By Reuben on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    K, You are very easily able to make this ILLUSION (yes matthai, an illusion) by closing your eyes and imagining her spinning either way then reopening them! she does not change feet and there is no blink it is all in your head!

  15. By David M on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    The foot on the ground could be either the left foot or the right foot - it’s ambiguous. To see the illusion, try making a circle in the air clockwise or anti-clockwise and looking away from the picture to start with. The picture will sychronise with the direction of your finger.

  16. By Jimmy on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    I tried as hard as I could to make her change directions, but all I see is clockwise rotation.

  17. By Swervin on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    All I see is counter clockwise and standing on right foot. Dosen’t change for me.

  18. By Akira on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    It’s very hard to reverse the apparent rotation without stopping the animation for a second. Those guys saying the others are nuts; Trust me, I said the same. If you stop the animation and start it again, she appears to rotate the other way. Some people (ie me) can’t do it any other way, but you CAN do it.

  19. By Nate on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply

    I got her to change directions focusing on her shadow (just her top foot). It took a while (like 3-5 minutes), but I was a able to flip it back and forth. It just kind of clicked.

    Try looking away at something or try doing something else for a few seconds and try looking at it again. Just be patient and it works.

  20. By Floyd on Mar 17, 2008 | Reply

    Despite claims to the contrary, yes, this is an optical illusion. I find that I can alter my perception of rotational direction by watching the figure and blinking rapidly a few times.

  21. By me on Mar 17, 2008 | Reply

    This particular execution of the illusion was not right in putting a “reflection” “under” her. I say it like that because most people will see her spinning clockwise due to the fact that the mind associates reflections as being below someone/something. However if when you view it you can block that aspect of the reflection from the animated image, then you see the location of the “camera” has moved below the horizontal plane (or -y coordinates.) You can then see her spin in the other direction…

  22. By poo on Mar 24, 2008 | Reply

    THIS IS WEIRD ITS NOT AN OPTICAL ILLUSION ITS COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY!

  23. By Ha Le on Mar 31, 2008 | Reply

    If you stare at the middle part of her body or the leg, it is hard to see her change the spinning direction until you accidentally fails to focus or look away from her body to either side of the monitor. Very easy trick to make her change the spinning direction. Let’s do this: Look at bottom left corner of the picture then when the toe of her higher leg points to that corner look up to a point about 2cm above the head of the girl then look down to the bottom right corner of the picture quick enough so when her foot points at the left bottom corner you can can start looking up to the point above her then down to the bottom left corner… keep doing this for a while you will notice that each time you look up (either from left or right bottom corner) she will change the spinning direction, or she may even looks like only swinging from left and right and left.

    Another way is to keep focusing on the point 2cm above her head for a while, and the picture (which must not be the focus of your vision) will look exactly that she’s only swinging, not spinning around.

  24. By axim on Apr 1, 2008 | Reply

    to the unbelieving dude: if a picture is all black without sense of dept it can always be both ways, a person can stand facing toward or away from you and there would not be a difference in it if it where all black, so if she seems to be standing on her left leg and she suddenly goes the other way of course she will seem to be standing on her right leg, thing is there are no left and right leg because there is no way of telling which side is which because its all black… ever seen a 3d image of a body without any indications of front and back, lets say just a skinless motion capture figure is walking clearly to the left and into the distance, well if you look again he is actually going left and toward you… or not? you can not tell and this is identical to that

  25. By Shaeleah on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply

    She spins counter clockwise, and is always standing on her RIGHT LEG, not the left. Thats what I see, and I can’t get her to change the way she spins.

  26. By Shaeleah on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply

    You can tell which leg is which. You can tell by the shape of her body.

  27. By Johan P on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply

    I took the above advice:
    look at the shade. If you concentrate on the left part of the picture and then change over to the right part, the figure changes rotation… it is awesome…

  28. By bob on Apr 8, 2008 | Reply

    you look at her leg to see the “illusion” properly

  29. By marcia on Apr 8, 2008 | Reply

    !the secret is all in her shadow! focus on the shadow!~~~ whenever you want her to change her spinning direction,just look at her shadow and think about it, and you will make it!

  30. By spunk on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

    I couldnt get it untill i tried rapidly blinking my eyes. If you blink right as her legs cross over her body and picture in your mind her spinning the opposite direction, when your eyes re-open she will be. This is an amazing illusion, but difficcult to work.

  31. By mythos dk on Apr 11, 2008 | Reply

    It’s fun placing two of them on the screen.
    Each can appear to rotate in opposite directions.
    And I find it easier to change their direction this way too!

  32. By makaila on Apr 13, 2008 | Reply

    well if u just scroll down to where u can only see her shadow then u just see the shadow and it will be going counteclock wis and then u scroll up again and she is going clock wise… Ô_Ôman this thing is weird

  33. By favb on Apr 16, 2008 | Reply

    if you scroll half way down and just focus on the shadow of the foot that appears and disappears. Then imagine her going back and forth, instead of spinning, with the light changing behind her head to make the shadow of that foot disappear sometimes. Whichever way you want her to go that’s the direction you imagine her going when the shadow disappears.

  34. By Victor on Apr 16, 2008 | Reply

    okay, guys. this is the easiest trick in the programming book. this is a GIF. It was programmed by some nerd in his grandma’s basement. I googled this picutre to this website and when I look at the girl on the site, I see her boobs, ponytail, but and left and go counter clock wise. When I look at it as a picture, I see them differently.

    It also works If you look it up on two different sites and set the windows side by side. It’s merely a program to change how she moves. And by using psychology, the nerd has figured out how to make people change it (by simply stating it.) so it changes when the reader “wants” to.

  35. By Rosalind on Apr 22, 2008 | Reply

    she changes direction if you concentrate on somewhere far below her, like the start button, and can see her in the corner of your eye. You can’t manipulate the direction by looking at the shadow! I spent a long time puzzling over this for I am a great mathematician!

  36. By Rosalind on Apr 22, 2008 | Reply

    You make me sick, Bobby Bob.

  37. By yummy on Apr 22, 2008 | Reply

    I don’t understand what is the illusion.I thought it would be some great thing but shes just going clockwise on her left leg you look from bottom ,up,legs look anywhere, i don’t understand u people . Where is the illusion.

  38. By yummy on Apr 22, 2008 | Reply

    I also tried shouting at her to change direction but shes not changing direction.But shes not changing direction .Just going clockwise.
    May be she doesn’t love me :((((((

  39. By Vargo on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply

    Right, if you concentrate you can see her arms swing a little whenever she hops onto her other foot.

    You aren’t controlling her, it’s a GIF on a loop that makes it seem like you change her direction via concentration.

  40. By Vargo on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply

    Scratch what i just said, after looking at it i can make her swap her legs.

    To do it, when her leg is going to cross over the other one, instead of seeing it cross in front of her leg, force yourself to see it cross behind her leg and she will swap legs.

  41. By Roma on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply

    at first, i thought it’s a trick. then after spending more time with the spinning girl, i realized that it is indeed an illusion. i can change the direction of her spin, too. but i haven’t mastered it yet. but there are times i see her go clockwise in 2 seconds, counter in the next two seconds, and it goes on and on. :))

  42. By Roma on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply

    i think the technique to “change” the direction of the spin is to not concentrate on the rhythm of her spin. :)

  43. By PV3 on Apr 24, 2008 | Reply

    zits bull….if you watch for a while, she finally changes direction quickly

  44. By Dave on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply

    YOU LOSERS, THIS IS A REAL ILLUSION AND SHE CAN SPIN BOTH WAYS, NOT JUST ONE

  45. By Steve on Apr 26, 2008 | Reply

    Yeah, looking at the shadow helps you change her direction. Also, it is definitely an illusion. She doesn’t change until I ‘make’ her go the opposite direction. If you just sit there and watch she doesn’t change (atleast for me).

  46. By Anatoly on Apr 28, 2008 | Reply

    This is not an illusion. Try to download the image and open it in different program. It is actually an animation (this is why it is a gif file). It looks like the direction is changing, but it is only because she is spinning in two directions in the same time - our mind chooses one of them and ignores the other.

  47. By WIlford111 on Apr 28, 2008 | Reply

    whoa… first time I saw her, she was turning counter-clockwise, then I read the comments, then looked back and she was turning the other direction! I don’t know what happened!

  48. By Ron on Apr 29, 2008 | Reply

    http://ofb.net/~whuang/imgs/spin/

  49. By Kerri on May 3, 2008 | Reply

    It does change. When she turns a few times, it changes direction. Its not our eyes, its the way its done!

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