#11. What is going on with these pictures?

Quick…

  • What is going on in these 2 pic­tures below?
  • Is there some ele­ment out of place?

Ready. Set. Go! 

games for the brain

brain games

 

–> Watch this 2‑minute video and enjoy the answer :-)

 

Next brain teas­er in Sharp­Brains’ top 25 series:

Posted in

59 Comments

  1. Tom on September 22, 2008 at 2:26

    There are many things going on in these pic­tures. They are NOT mir­ror images because some of the indi­vid­u­als are in slight­ly dif­fer­ent posis­tions in both pic­tures (even if on oppo­site sides). Notice the lady’s hands are dif­fer­ent on the white bag in the bot­tom pic­ture and also the lady with the blue hair rib­bon on the top pic, her chin is raised on one side and lev­el on the oth­er. Also, the back­grounds are dif­fer­ent in both. It’s very poss­bile they sim­ply had these peo­ple switch sides and snapped sep­a­rate pic­tures with most in as exact posi­tions as possible.



  2. Lilu on September 23, 2008 at 10:31

    The thing going on in this pic­tures is sim­ple, they are not mir­ror reflec­tion because the peo­ple alike are is a min­i­mal difer­ent posi­tion. Is not the same subeat because the posters and the light is difer­ent and there is a per­son miss­ing in both pic­tures (the lady read­ing the book) her ‑pair- is not in front of her. Cool experiment



  3. DigiTim on September 24, 2008 at 6:18

    That’s cool! I thought mir­ror at first too. But I did­n’t time how long it took for me to catch the differences.



  4. Ryan Clements on September 28, 2008 at 8:18

    I kin­da cheat­ed, I already had seen the video on Improv Everywhere.



  5. Linda Sherlock on September 30, 2008 at 12:52

    Tak­en from oppo­sites ends of the train car after a stop .. also a cou­ple of shots each time which show slight dif­fer­ences in position …



  6. Lucie on October 23, 2008 at 2:56

    To achieve this effect in both pic­tures, 4 dif­fer­ent pic­tures have been tak­en, at two dif­fer­ent stops; 1 pic­ture tak­en from each end of the train at each stop. 

    LEFT HALF of top pic­ture was tak­en at the 1ST STOP by the guy in the black coat (that you can see in the bot­tom pic).

    RIGHT HALF of top pic­ture was tak­en by that same guy, but at the 2ND STOP *which explain why the read­ing lady does­n’t have her “reflec­tion” as the oth­ers (she left the train before the pic was taken).

    LEFT HALF of bot­tom pic­ture was tak­en at the FIRST STOP by the girl stand­ing with the white trench coat seen on top picture. 

    RIGHT HALF of bot­tom pic­ture was tak­en, once again by that same girl, but at the 2ND STOP, where once again, the read­ing lady is missing.



  7. MUSTAPHA on November 3, 2008 at 3:29

    I observed that the two pic­tures are not the same, also the pic­tures onthe oppo­site side have some sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­encec that can only be noticed with very close observation.
    8 sec­onds of close look.



  8. tejasvini on November 7, 2008 at 12:36

    there is a mirror.…one side is true and the oth­er just a mir­ror side



  9. Prince on November 7, 2008 at 10:30

    Hahaha..There are same peo­ple who sit­ting beside them..It’s kin­da nice trick..and some one plac­ing a cam­era on the ver­ti­cal side of that train so that we can see the image of the per­son in ver­ti­cal side..so it’s a trick..lol.…All are peo­ple who sit­ting beside them.. lol



  10. Prince on November 7, 2008 at 10:31

    Also the girl in first pic­ture ..her head was straight but oth­er side her head was down..haha..It’s trick..Nice man.. ;)



  11. becky on November 14, 2008 at 7:02

    they’re sets of iden­ti­cal twins sat oppo­site each oth­er as a mir­ror image, but their hair is dif­fer­ent and their faces are slightyl different.



  12. Deana Thomas on November 17, 2008 at 2:00

    They are sets of iden­ti­cal twins.…I saw this exper­i­ment done to see how the pub­lic would re-act. I’m sure they scon­fused alot of sub­way riders!



  13. Michelle on November 18, 2008 at 11:24

    there mir­rors one mir­ror is con­cave which is shrink­ing the image and one is con­vex which is stretch­ing it



  14. James on November 30, 2008 at 10:17

    First off I am a monoc­u­lar visioned per­son (1 human eye) but what was dif­fer­ent was obvi­ous. In the top pic­ture and bot­tom pic­ture, the num­ber 4 pas­sen­ger was miss­ing on one side of the image but present in the mir­ror image. This only took a cou­ple sec­onds to see. What does­n’t sur­prise me is that peo­ple with two human eyes can’t see this but peo­ple with one eye can see it. That is why I am a bet­ter com­mer­cial vehi­cle dri­ver and air­plane pilot. Peo­ple with one eye can see things with greater detail than peo­ple with two eyes. Go figure.



  15. Arson on November 30, 2008 at 4:12

    These peo­ple in par­tic­i­pants in ImprovEv­ery­where in NYC.



  16. Jennifer on December 2, 2008 at 3:51

    The girl with the head band is in a dif­fer­ent posis­tion and so is the pole which she is hold­ing on the left but not the right. the mir­ror stuff is obvi­ous . I think 20 sec­onds should of looked anoth­er minute I see shoes



  17. Johne on December 7, 2008 at 12:33

    pairs of dupli­cates face each other.

    mir­ror reflects persons

    BBQ sign oppo­site a map



  18. Lacy on December 12, 2008 at 5:14

    Its improv every­where from you tube, theyre great, they’re all twins, they freaked peo­ple out in the sub­way and stuff, it was hilar­i­ous!!!! if you havent seen them you should check them out!



  19. Laine on December 22, 2008 at 8:34

    ok…so this is real­ly late, but the sock thing is bogus…the big­ger girl on the end is wear­ing rain­boots and the sec­ond girl has on two-tone (gray/black) shoes…
    NOT SOCKS

    otherwise…ditto the twin thing every­one else mentioned



  20. FemiNina on December 25, 2008 at 10:46

    twins going to the twin con­ven­tion on the subway?



  21. cipher on December 26, 2008 at 2:19

    either it’s a mir­ror image or they just have a train full of twins



  22. hbkim5 on January 2, 2009 at 1:26

    their all twins. Its not a mir­ror image because the trains have dif­fer­ent ads on each side.



  23. vince on January 8, 2009 at 9:27

    in the pho­to there are iden­ti­cal twins sit­ting across from each oth­er giv­ing the illu­sion of a mir­ror effect



  24. Thea on January 19, 2009 at 2:22

    Both trains have peo­ple that are wear­ing the same clothes and look alike — you will see they are not pos­ing exact­ly the same way. In both pic­tures there is a per­son who has no one the same across from him — the pic­ture was tak­en from two dif­fer­ent sides — it was in less than a minute i saw it.



  25. Lynzy on January 24, 2009 at 3:19

    they are all twins



About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

Newsletter

Subscribe to our e-newsletter

* indicates required

Got the book?