Be Excellent To Each Other

OK, I think this has perhaps been doing the rounds, but I had not seen it before.

So, which way is she spinning?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html


Have a go before reading the spoiler.

See, I tried to 'make' her spin the other way as it said you could, but just cannot do it, no matter how much I concentrate

Very clever indeed, however I can make the way I perceive the rotation change at will, to either clockwise or anti-clockwise. If I focus on her foot which stays on the floor and try to perceive it moving in the opposite direction, it changes.

I sent this to my aforementioned 'physics phd' mate and do you what what the first thing he said was?

'The dancer has nipples'.

I think the fourth, ace.

I tried looking at the grounded foot and looking away, imagining her spinning the opposite way in my periphery before looking back, but it still doesn't work.

I've seen this before so I knew what it was going to be before I clicked on the link. I'm pretty sure last time I could make her appear to change direction, but lazily staring at it this time of the morning meant that she'd only spin clockwise for me.

Strange, it says that the majority of people see anti-clockwise, yet on here it is the opposite

maybe it is my suggestion in the first post that she spins clockwise that makes people see it that way.

Hmmm... I'll edit that out and see.

That's weird because I'm far more logical than I am creative.
I've noticed now that if I look at the shadow of the standing foot, that appears to be going anti-clockwise, but if I focus back on the actual standing foot it appears clockwise again.

I can only see anti-clockwise. I am like most people - bah.

Aahhhh! I still cannot do it.

I have no logic.

I am giving up. I do not know why it bothers me so much, but I cannot trick my mind into making her spin the other way - I have tried focusing away, on the shadow, free leg, grounded leg, but meh.

I will not look at the link anymore.

Oh god I'm broken.

Went in and was she's clear anti. VERY clearly. Was just about to come back and post how you're all mad when without any contribution from myself it started going clockwise and now I can't get it to change back.
*sobs*

Right that's better, got control of it now, which I think it a bigger sign of a logical brain because I did so by working out which bits are attached "wrong" for both directions

I can make it change direction by deciding which direction I will see it go in. Perhaps I have a middle brain?

I can only see it going clockwise - I cannot fathom how to make it spin the other way...

Right, I've done it. For about 10 seconds I managed to get it going anticlockwise, but then it reverted back again.

Stop lying.

She moves clockwise, clearly, and anyone saying otherwise is a wrong 'un, and a witch to boot.

Clockwise all the way for me...I cant understand how people can see it going the other way...maybe she's spinning faster on their machines or something, but I cant see how in anyway she is going anticlockwise.

I think it probably works similar to watching a wheel on a car...sometimes they appear to be going backwards when clearly the car is going forward.

Has anyone else listened to a ticking clock before and imagine the sound the clock changes depending on whether it is "ticking" or "tocking"? The clock to me sounds totally different whether I'm "ticking", "tick tocking" or "tocking" in my head. Maybe thats just me cos Im freaky.

I totally disagree with the functions of the left and right sign of the brain on that site as according to that Im very left sided whereas I see her going clockwise which says I should be right sided.

I dunno, maybe its best to try this thing when drunk.

It turns clockwise for me 'as standard'.

You can easily make it turn the other way by concentrating on her knee. The knee of the straight leg. If you look at the knee and imagine it turning back and forth in opposite directions, the moment her outstreched leg blocks it the whole body will switch direction.

The secret is in the knee. She isn't really rotating at all, rather she is going back and forth 45 degress each way.

Ok peeps, I've now managed to get this to go both ways...but it is still normal going clockwise.

Mimi and others who find it impossible going the other way, try saving the GIF file and watching it in Quicktime or something. It spins much faster for me and enables the "magic" to take place.

Tried opening it in Quicktime and it is going at the same speed as it does in my browser - I think my browser must already be playing it full speed.

Also, I promised I would not look at it any more, and now I just have because of YOU!

Keep watching.

Try reducing the size also...that helped for me.

I just switched over to IE and it goes much slower than in Firefox and I was able to see it going both ways.
The key for me is definitely the reflection of the standing foot which seems to be spinning in the opposite direction to the actual dancer. So by focusing on that and then switching my focus back to the dancer at the right point (which is easier to do the slower it's going) I can make it seem like she's changing direction.

Yes I realise this hence the ""....next you'll be telling me the magic eyes from the 90's werent magic either.

They weren't?

Have you got it to go the other way yet Mimi? I've found when really small its normal rotation is anti clockwise but when large its clockwise. Its possible to stretch from small to large and keep the same direction and vice-versa.

No, I have given up. My brain is hardwired to make it go clockwise. My brain is blocking out all other possibilities.

I could only see her spinning anti-clockwise. I tried and tried to see her spinning clockwise, but it wasn't happening.

I've seen this before. She clearly goes clockwise, but last time I was eventually able to get her to reverse. It makes you feel a bit odd when she flicks over to going the other way.

Anyway! This time I can't do it. At all.

Now I'm very "right brain based" according to their categories, I'm an engineer who's good as visualising stuff in 3d from plans, but I don't have a shred of artistic ability, so I do wonder if they've got that the wrong way around. Or if it's not related to that stuff at all.

Clockwise here, and I can't make it go the other way either. I'm surprised, as I could do those magic eye things at will, and you know those rotating shop sign things that have kind of gone out of fashion now? They're little curvy black metal things set in a stand that rotates when the wind blows. If I watched them and sort of refocused on them, I could make it look like they wree spinning either way, or flipping back and forth rapidly instead of going full circle.

Years worth of sitting in the back of cars after school, bored, while my mum went shopping "for five minutes" and talked to some woman or other for six and a half hours: well spent.

Started clockwise, then I watched her reflected foot for a while and now she's anti-clockwise.

At first I can only see her spin anti-clockwise, but if I really concentrate I can see her spin clockwise for a few seconds before she flips back again. Nice illusion.

For ages I could only see clockwise, then I looked at the shadow, and it flipped. Pretty wierd.

(Most specifically, the foot which appears off the bottom of the image, changing its phase changes the direction of spin)

Clockwise for me, but I also disagree with their brain function conclusions.

Aaaahhh! I couldn't see it turning any way but clockwise until I read this, now she's going anti-clockwise.
Tis witchcraft!

I'm not sure if my favourite is "Believes" (which I read as "BeLEEEEVS! You have to beleeeev!" and then chuckle quietly to myself, although that may be the gin), or "knows object name", which made me laugh when I read it on my .... flat ... lighty glowy ... colour display thingy.

Me: Immediately clockwise, but anticlockwise (or back again) with no problems if I want to. I can do this sort of thing (altering the way I perceive movement) with no problem.

Missus: Immediately anticlockwise, but can do clockwise but then 'arrrrgh I don't like it'.

I swing both ways.

To get it to go the other way I just look away from the screen for a few seconds, and visualise the leg going around the other way. When I look back, voila!

Very similar to FLIS "Turn it off, its doing my head in, turn it off now I hate it" Bloody women.

Much to her annoyance, Ive wasted far too much of the day looking at this damn thing. My highlight has been being able to make it switch direction several times without actually doing a full rotation. It is almost like she is doing the Can-can.

Could only see Clockwise for ages, then managed to find an intermediate state where the leg is basically swinging back and forth in a 180 degree arc, then finally it flipped over.

I see Clockwise if I just glance, first impressions, but I can "make myself" see it either way. I can't do magic eyes, though =)

Clockwise for me. Quick tip, if you want to 'switch': block everything bar the top of the legs to above the ankles. Note how the leg appears to swing and not rotate (it's like a strange pendulum). Now look also at either the foot or the hand and imagine the direction you want the body to turn. If you then reveal the rest of the image slowly, your rotation might change. Note that in my case, I can change the rotation by doing this, but it 'snaps' back as soon as I blink. Also, although when staring the girl spins clockwise, the spin reverses in my peripheral vision. Presumably, this says something terribly important about me from a psychological standpoint, but I hesitate to speculate on what that might be.

See my post above for precise operating instructions.

Oops. Sorry. Still, at least I got to add the bit about my peripheral vision and potential craziness.

OK. So what does it say about me that me response was "We're looking at her front on, which is completely the wrong axis for her to be turning either clockwise or anti-clockwise. The only way to pick one or the other would be to decide whether to view from above or below"?

It says that you're a complete tit.

I actually thought the same, before deciding she's clearly going clockwise and all these other people are witches.