You Can't Do That: The Beatles Illusion

[cloudatlas]

So you think you know the Beatles?

Take a look at the image below.  It's the cover of the soundtrack to "A Hard Day's Night," except I've flipped the faces upside-down.  Each row contains 5 pictures of one of the Beatles.  Can you match each Beatle to his row?  (No cheating!)

Comments

[nathan_hale]

It's true, I got them all right. I don't have it memorized, per se, but I know their faces well enough to get it right, even upside down. Ringo and George look remarkably similar upside down.

[pinkspudbrit]

If brainwashing small children isn't enough...try getting everyone around you pumped about science (or dork everyone out) by wearing this t-shirt.

: )

[denvermarmot]

I'm glad you explained the idea behind it. Since I've drawn the Beatles repeatedly (obsessed teenager), you could have given me just their eyes upside down or sideways or scrambled and I'd have gotten it right. So I was having trouble figuring out why it was a puzzle... it was obvious to me who was who.

It might be interesting to survey similar images with artists and non-artists. Artists tend to notice and remember features that others miss. Which is why I'm always the first person to spot familiar character actors in movies ("ooh ... there's the guy that was Celeborn in 'LOTR' and the evil Christian guy in 'Kingdom of Heaven'!") Drives everybody else nuts.

And as for blowing their minds... oh yeah, that's one of the perks of teaching.