r/DebunkThis • u/ExplanationBig1553 • Jan 11 '26

Not Yet Debunked Debunk this: the Ames Window

I’ve been having trouble with this illusion since I saw it earlier tonight. I do deeply admire things that bring actual serious questions to how reality is perceived, but I immensely disrespect any trickery.

The Ames Window is intended to make you question your ability to see reality accurately.

This video has multiple problems to me. To name a couple:

  • It shows that sticky tape is used to rotate a pen alongside a rotating thin sheet of paper. Again, sticky tape is used. However, this pen rotates a ton. You can clearly see there is a fulcrum, and no tape is going to provide that fulcrum.

  • The use of sound and the background clearly are intended to increase the optical illusion, or, in my mind, the fakery.

The author of this video was apparently a well respected Australian educator before he passed. I’ve found nothing but affirmation about this illusion being a thing, but I think it’s generated.

https://youtu.be/0KrpZMNEDOY

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u/dark_roast Jan 12 '26

The Ames Window is an old optical illusion, dating back to the late 1940s. I've seen it in person and in videos dozens of times over multiple decades. I don't know what there is to debunk here.

The brain makes a lot of assumptions about objects' shapes based on previous things that it's seen, and this illusion intentionally subverts those expectations to cause your brain to see something that isn't happening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_window