Two boxes flashing black and white continuously appear to move in several directions and even grow smaller and larger in the illusion.

2

However, the boxes aren’t actually moving, despite what your eyes are telling you.

A YouTuber known as PolyMathematic with more than 30,000 subscribers explains how the illusion works.

Tim Ricchuiti, who runs the account, called the illusion the wildest one he’s ever seen.

The illusion seems to have originated from a Twitter account with the username @Jagarikin which appears to be from Japan.

“We’ve got two cubes but within the cubes are these arrows that do different things,” said Tim, adding that the arrows move back and forth, rotate, and expand inward and outwards. “The cube itself appears to do those same things.”

However, Tim revealed that the arrows don’t actually do anything and covered them up in his video.

“You can see they’re [the cubes] still changing in the same way as they were before.”

However, no matter how hard one looks, it still appears as though the cubes are moving.

To solve the illusion, Tim places the cubes on a stationary grid background.

“As you watch the cube, pay attention to the grid behind it,” said Tim. “The cube does not move.”

However, the flashing lights that make up the outline of the cube tricks our eyes into believing that the entire shape is moving.

“There definitely is something changing here,” said Tim. “But it’s not movement itself.”

Tim’s video received more than 8,000 views and several comments from people thanking him for helping them solve the illusion.

“Thanks for this. Am a hobbyist magician and professional motion gfx person and this was driving me crazy!” wrote one person. “I think the boxes technically are very subtly moving and rotating to alter the drop shadow. Didn’t know there was a debate, but I’d definitely call it an optical illusion.”

“Very good video. Thanks for the demonstration with the grid, that was super cool,” wrote another person.

A third person wrote: “This is so cool, in the best of ways — for me, this means my brain is going “But, whaaaaat?!?” and I cannot stop smiling watching it. Thanks for that!”

If you’re looking for another challenge, this optical illusion which can reveal whether you’ve got a lot to accomplish or if you lead a very boring life. 

2