These boxes aren't rotating. It's an optical illusion. Really.

pic.twitter.com/nyyWdr5O1E

— (@jagarikin) February 14, 2020

On Twitter, @jagarikin posted this fantastic example of the "reverse phi illusion." Press play above. The boxes aren't actually rotating. I promise. From SoraNews24:

In very simplified terms, when our eyes see sudden transitions from either light to dark or dark to light, our brains perceive it as motion happening. Take yet another look at @jagarikins GIF, and youll notice that the edges of the cubes blue frames have a sliver of color to them. Sometimes theyre white, sometimes theyre gray, and sometimes theyre black, and as theyre cycling from one to the next, the videos background is doing the same thing, and the result is the illusionary rotation of the cubes.

For more on the reverse phi illusion: "An optical illusion called 'reverse-phi motion' helps explain how we view moving objects, Stanford scientists find" Read the rest