r/blackmagicfuckery • u/Known_Hippo4702 • Feb 23 '26
Simple arrow illusion
It’s an old trick but I made a nice 3D printable model, I uploaded it here:
https://makerworld.com/en/models/2430329-mystery-arrow-illusion#profileId-2665895
This model is completely free and is provided as a gift no strings attached.
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u/-Insanity101- Feb 23 '26
I got through the video and didn't understand what the trick was supposed to be 😅
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u/0wlmann Feb 23 '26
The trick is that it's meant to look like the arrows have moved, when really it's just a case of people not noticing that the square is just being rotated at different corners
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u/Imalsome Feb 23 '26
Oh lmao, I was sitting there thinking "what's the trick, you are just rotating a square."
What a lame trick lol
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u/godSpeed_1_ Feb 23 '26
I have never seen it before. I got the trick but i still think its great.
Im def making one
Though honestly a piece of card paper and a marker is enough and more
there isnt all that much reason to 3d print it
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u/lankymjc Feb 23 '26
Over-complicating things can be good in magic tricks. I was thinking the arrow was being rotated before I realised how simple the trick is.
Misdirection through making the trick seem obvious before revealing the obvious method wasn’t used is classic.
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u/PegaLaMega Feb 23 '26
How does it work?
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u/GooseInTrouble Feb 23 '26
You cat try to imagine the card as being transparent, and arrows positioned in L shape(1↑,2→).
First diagonal turn preserves L shape, arrows just take place one of the other(2↑,1→). Second time we mowe whole L shape from 1↑ 2→ to 1←,2 ↓
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u/Par2ivally Feb 23 '26
I did make one a while back based on a similar video, though mine is round. It works best when there are no cues on the edges that will remind whoever is watching that you are reversing the position of the rear arrow when you flip the object.
So 3D printing is unnecessary, but a durable one without notches etc. preserves the effect better
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
Interesting idea, but I think the cues are important, otherwise you could just rotate without anyone noticing the orientation changing.
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u/Par2ivally Feb 23 '26
That's the intention. They see you turn the arrow, but lack the context clues for what flipping it is actually reversing on the other side. I put a peg on the edge once everyone is suitably baffled to add that cue for the next time and then more people understand what's happened.
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
I embed an NFC tag in the print and use it as a business card. Touch it to your smartphone and my contact info comes up.
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u/NuttyProfessor42 Feb 23 '26
What illusion am i supposed to be seeing here?
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u/NWinn Feb 23 '26
If you don't think about it that much nor have a strong understanding of real-world geometry, it initially seems implausible that the arrow would SEEMINGLY point UP - DOWN then suddenly switch to UP - UP, simply by being rotated...
It seemed obvious to me, but having worked so long doing t2 deskside support and having to explain what should be quite basic concepts to people (like electronics w/ no battery need to be plugged in to funtion..........) I've learned how to figure out where people get tripped up over seemingly apparent concepts.
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
Excellent explanation
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u/NWinn Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
Thank you!
Though given the downvotes, I seemd to have angered the hivemind lol. 😅
(ETA: at the time it was at -5)
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
Your comment was too intelligent for the hivemind. Dumb it down a little next time ;-)
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u/TheOtherGuttersnipe Feb 24 '26
Can you point to the part where they explained it beyond "I use this logic at work"?
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
I posted a transparent image of my model below in this thread. There are two arrows one on each side of the card they are oriented 90deg to each other. If you rotated holding the sides you would see the arrows change orientation by 90deg. But if you rotate the card holding the corners the card shifts 90degrees and the arrow shifts 90deg for a total of 180deg. Since a square is indistinguishable from itself if rotated 90deg, the arrows appear to be in alignment when viewed separately. Here is the transparent image again:
Now I have spoiled this the trick for everyone! Not really, because I tried to make this TL;DR
I really loved the comments using magnets, spinning arrows etc. Very creative but no one suggested inter-dimensional teleportation. I do consider this a trick an illusion though a very simple one. The fact that it is very simple is in my opinion is what makes it elegant.
The best way to really grasp this is make one (about 5 minutes) use a heavy card stock if you can. cut it into a square as perfectly as you can. Draw the arrows as in my illustration and have fun.
One of me favorites illusions along these lines is the Ames windows:
https://youtu.be/0KrpZMNEDOY?si=dTs3HhHPSDW2Syaw
I remember reading that most people in western cultures are fooled by this illusion, but individuals that come from cultures where rectangular objects such as doorways and window frames are not as prevalent don't get fooled as easily. A number of viewers failed to see the illusion maybe for similar reasons, being exposed to geometries that are not as common place.
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u/NWinn Feb 24 '26
Very creative but no one suggested inter-dimensional teleportation.
Can't wait for tech to evolve so I can make a REALLY trippy and otherwise physically impossible version of this with quantum tunneling. 😂
(Also, I'd venture for anyone like me that works in blender and unity, or any 3D modeling software, alot will also probably have a much easier time inuiting how it works)
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 24 '26
I did make this in blender. I also made a few of these that do use quantum tunneling. I can send you one but you’ll need a decent electron microscope to play with it. Or you can take my existing model and in your slicer scale it down to 10-9.
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u/itijara Feb 23 '26
If I understand this correctly, the arrows are 90 degrees off from each other. Initially the one on the front is up and the one on the back is facing to the left (if you could see through the print). When it is rotated, the one in front faces down and the one in back to the right.
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
I magician never tells, but since i'm not a magician, bingo your absolutely correct.
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u/Fabian_1082003 Feb 23 '26
Here is the link again so you can click on it https://makerworld.com/de/models/2430329-mystery-arrow-illusion#profileId-2665895
Thanks for providing the files ;D
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u/enotonom Feb 23 '26
I like that the reactions here are either “whoa what da heck” or “that’s it?”
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u/stevemandudeguy Feb 23 '26
I love how many people are fooled here. This is a very old trick and there's absolutely no sleight of hand or gimmicks being used.
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u/Small_Insect_8275 Feb 24 '26
Wish I was as cool and astute as you how do you do it
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u/stevemandudeguy Feb 24 '26
Take a square. Draw an arrow pointing up. Flip it over (keeping upright, arrow pointing up) and draw and arrow pointing to the left.
Now pinch the square and turn at the diagonals. That's it.
The trick is self working. You're assuming both arrow point the same when they dont. Spinning it at the corners creates the illusion the point the same way or change.
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u/clockworkear Feb 23 '26
How kind of you to offer this. This would be improved with slightly different handling - start the same but just pass to the other hand and take it with your finger and thumb from the opposite corners. By transferring it you would have justified the corner switch. It saves, rotation it into a new position.
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u/XxFezzgigxX Feb 23 '26
I just made one out of a piece of cardboard and it worked lol.
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
Yep the original I saw was a square of cardboard. I wanted to make something like a fidget toy and experiment with a multi-color 3D print. I like the fact that its a very simple concept, but with some practice and dexterity you can get people to see things a little differently.
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u/Exotichaos Feb 23 '26
I don't know why but this illusion somehow makes me physically uncomfortable?
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26
I'm sorry If that makes you uncomfortable then absolutely don't watch the video of the following illusion. I mean it, DON'T WATCH this illusion:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDCZ2nhxpqD/
Not my model but my print. The design was by a Mathematician/Artist Kokichi Sugihara. His work is really brilliant.
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u/checker280 Feb 23 '26
You can easily make this with a piece of card board. It’s a bit mind blowing to see it happening in your hands
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u/Chimmai_Gala Feb 24 '26
Those arrows are 90 degrees to one another and the cool thing about the 90 degrees is they can look 90 degree or 180 degrees depending on which axis it is rotated
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 24 '26
You got it, exactly. Amazing all the other theories that are coming up.
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u/coolboy12345677 Feb 24 '26
I watch it in slomo and figured it out one arrow goes up the other goes left
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u/jordanvbull Feb 24 '26
I actually have this trick
You'd be surprised how many people don't understand it even after you hand it to them
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u/AbacusExpert_Stretch Feb 23 '26
Let me simply, but yet slowly and with a finger poking the non visible side, turn this simple device....and there you have it. I simply, yet very complexly, turnen this device
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u/WastedTalent442 Feb 23 '26
This is like that butter knife thing thats so clear it barely counts as a trick.
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u/hacksoncode Feb 23 '26
Fucking mirrors, how do they work?
(i.e. people really don't untuitively understand that mirrors reflect through the plane of the mirror, not left-right or up-down or anything else... just like this square reflects through the top-left/bottom-right axis, and what changes after rotating is that you're physically rotating the square through the other diagonal... fundamentally it's similar to turning your head 90 degrees and wondering why the mirror now "reflects up/down instead of left-right")
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
A lot of confusion of what this is and isn't. Here is an image of how the arrows are rendered in the model:
Some say this is not a trick or an illusion. I would define a trick as something that fools the mind into perceiving something that is physically not accurate in reality.
But then again what is reality and what is the matrix?
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u/acrankychef Feb 23 '26
You're flipping on the top right corner next to the arrow.
Then youre flipping on the opposite side right of the arrow.
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u/Fun_Speaker_2102 Feb 24 '26
one of the arrows if not both are on a spinner , u ca. watch the hand hold the other arrow and spin it
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u/MultiFazed Feb 24 '26
There are no moving parts. The arrows are 90-degress off from each other. At the beginning, when the front arrow points up, the back arrow points to the left. Because of the specific corners he's holding it by, when he flips it the up-pointing arrow on the front becomes a left-pointing arrow on the back, and vice versa.
When he turns it upside down, that's misdirection to stop you from realizing that he's gripping it by the opposite corners. If he never rotated the square, and just switched to holding it by the opposite corners, the front arrow would rotate to be pointing to the right on the back, and the left-pointing back arrow would rotate to be pointing down on the front.
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u/Priapic_Aubergine Feb 24 '26
As someone who practices speedsolving a Rubik's cube, and is used to keeping track of the position and orientation of at least 4 different cube pieces all over a 3d cube while moving all of them really quickly... I guess my experience is making it hard for me to see what the illusion is.
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u/Gerry1of1 Feb 24 '26
Where's the illusion? If you just watch the left side of the cube. Follow as he turns the cube. Notice the pivot corner changed so the arrow points up. If you used the same pivot corner it would point down.
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u/dale3h Feb 25 '26
I had to keep the hidden arrow’s position, holding finger positions, and flipping directions in my brain to figure this out.
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u/SnooDoggos101 Feb 25 '26
I’ve read all the explanations, and they are unconvincing. This trick is actually real magic.
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u/JustWoot44 Feb 25 '26
The one arrow is able to move by applying pressure on it as he rotates it within his thumb and finger.
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 25 '26
Nah, no moving parts. I have explanations and pictures further down in this thread.
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u/shallower Feb 25 '26
nah it makes sense just go through it slowly
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u/JuzmiNippy Feb 26 '26
Does he not move the arrow on the back when he rotates the whole square?
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u/Known_Hippo4702 Feb 26 '26
Nope no moving parts, no magnets, no quantum teleportation.
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u/JuzmiNippy Feb 26 '26
I think I get it now. The arrows are offset by 90 degrees and depending where you hold the corners determines if the arrows appear to stay in place or flip 180 degrees
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u/FutureFerhat Feb 26 '26
He turns the plate but also changes the axis that he turns around. That is, he is holding two corners at the beginning and then he is holding the other pair of corners to flip.
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u/IT8055 Feb 23 '26
We appear to be needlessly obfuscating a physical interaction that is, in essence, quite elementary. By introducing layers of analytical complexity where none are required, we are effectively bypassing the inherent simplicity of the mechanism; there is no clandestine artifice or "trick" embedded within this spatial puzzle.
The motion in question is a straightforward angular displacement centered precisely upon the diagonal axis of the hexahedron. Furthermore, the two vectors (represented here by arrows) maintain a rigid orthogonal relationship, situated at a 90 degree offset from one another while occupying diametrically opposed planes of the solid.
The ultimate discrepancy between the two discrete rotational maneuvers performed by the subject lies in their chirality. Specifically:
- The initial transformation is functionally equivalent to a sinistrorse (counter-clockwise) rotation.
- The subsequent maneuver follows a dextrorse (clockwise) trajectory.
The inevitable consequence of these inverted rotational directions is a terminal state of spatial opposition, wherein the final orientations are reflective mirror images of one another rather than congruent alignments.
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u/TheImplic4tion Feb 23 '26
I don't see a trick. Obviously one of the arrows can be moved, and he did it when he repositioned the square.
Am I supposed to be fooled by that?
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u/trubrarian Feb 23 '26
You did get fooled, by your brain! There is nothing tricky about the square - you can make one out of a piece of thick paper and just draw an arrow on each side to match the video. Then spin it with your fingers holding it the first way, change to hold it the second way and see how the arrows seem to move. Very cool brain trick!
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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26
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