NeuroQuest: Optical Illusions

Find out how optical illusions trick your brain into seeing a spectrum that isn't there.

By Eric Haseltine
Apr 1, 2003 6:00 AMApr 26, 2023 3:54 PM
Optical Illusion
(Credit: Zita/Shutterstock)

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In an art class, I learned that black and white aren't colors in the strictest sense: They consist of a complete lack of color on the one hand and an equal combination of all colors on the other. I never found this explanation very satisfying. If black and white aren't colors, I wondered, then what precisely are they?

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