This pattern changes as it gets closer to your face
This image is clearly made of squares. Wait! No—pentagons! (PopSci/)We know you are bored at home right now—we are too. Here are some puzzles and brainteasers to challenge your family and friends with, either in person or over video chat.Sometimes the farther away you are from something, the clearer it is. At a distance, you can tell that the pattern in the center of this image differs slightly from the design around it. But get close to the screen, and one pattern appears to overtake the other, making the once-disparate motifs suddenly match.Known as the uniformity illusion, which University of Amsterdam assistant professor Yair Pinto first described in 2016, this sleight takes advantage of the way we gather information through our eyeballs.In the center of the eye sits a tiny pit known as the fovea. It contains a high density of retinal cones, which provide a detailed and colorful impression...