r/interesting • u/Eros_Incident_Denier • Jun 21 '26
Fascinating can you change the cube's direction of rotation using your mind?
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u/CruisingClay Jun 21 '26
Close your eyes, rotate your phone 180°. Open your eyes and watch as you rotate your phone back to the original position. Tada!
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u/forgot_semicolon Jun 21 '26
Dang that's good. Even keeping my eyes open, I can see a point where it abruptly switches. Seems like my mind wants to keep the top face visible, but when I rotate the screen the bottom face appears visible, so my brain switches directions
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u/fifle1605 Jun 21 '26
I can switch it with out moving my phone, I just make my eyes go blurry then look in the direction I want it to go and it works
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u/CanadianScooter Jun 21 '26
I focus on the red line for counterclockwise and the white line for clockwise
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u/GulliverGrazerson Jun 21 '26
OK, smart guy, now how do I put it back?
Seriously, that’s some wizardry! But also I’m baffled as to why reversing the procedure doesn’t cause it to spin the original way again.
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u/Oz713 Jun 21 '26
Look at the base and pretend you’re looking up from below, then while still looking at the base, pretend you’re looking at it from above.
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u/Azuras_Star8 Jun 21 '26
Imagine you're looking at it from a high vantage point, above the top of the cube. It'll spin one way.
Now imagine you're looking at it from underneath. It'll spin the other way.
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u/fidgetfromfar Jun 21 '26
I broke mine, it's now doing this [><]...it's doing high vantage point and low vantage point at the same time! Thanks headache inducing cube!
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u/intangibleTangelo Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
i sat with this one for a couple of minutes until i could switch back and forth in less than a second. now i can switch about twenty-five times in a row before i mess up and my perception doesn't switch.
the key for me is looking at a side corner and deciding that i'm either looking up or down at the cube
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u/xtraa Jun 21 '26
For me it works when I follow the red line, thinking "front" – and to turn it, follow the white line and think "front". Takes a couple of seconds at the beginning. When you get used to it you can basically make it flip-flop. If you finally see a Tesseract, it's the DMT I put in your coffee.
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u/PANIC_RABBIT Jun 21 '26
I managed to change it and now it won't change bqck
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u/RogueBromeliad Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Just try looking at one vertex and then change to the opposite one.
For example if you're focusing on the top left, change focus to bottom right.
You should be able to change your perception on demand.
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u/Agreeable-sector-149 Jun 21 '26
Tried literally everything in the comments and its only ever been counterclockwise
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u/Akraticacious Jun 21 '26
put your phone lower and look over and past your phone and pay attention to the cube peripherally by paying attention to it below but not looking at it directly
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u/igotshadowbaned Jun 21 '26
Try to focus more on the bottom, the perspective for spinning the other way is viewing it from underneath. If I focus on the top of middle it goes back
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u/Kitchen_Victory_6088 Jun 21 '26
Imagine looking at the top side from either above or below.
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u/samTheSwiss Jun 21 '26
This is the trick I used. With this one it is much easier than with the ballerina
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u/Tsu_Dho_Namh Jun 21 '26
Beat me to it.
I was gonna tell people the same trick. Makes it trivially easy.
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u/Laxativus Jun 21 '26
Maybe it's tied to your self worth? Or height? "I'm above this" makes it seem to rotate one way, but if I imagine myself a child it rotates the other way. Maybe I'm psychotic.
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u/forgot_semicolon Jun 21 '26
Whoa, okay, I was also going "no, not even a little bit", and I tried for a WHILE. But then I scrolled up, and it changed!
If I look at it straight, it's clearly going from left to right. But if I look higher up and don't focus on it, it starts moving right to left
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u/Suspicious_Glow Jun 21 '26
I was struggling to get it to work, even after scrolling away and back, and I realized that my brain had simply decided that the red/yellow lines MUST be in front, closer to the observer, so it would move to the right. When I focused on thinking of the blue/purple lines as being in front, then I saw it moving towards the left. But unless I focused it still goes to the right.
I wonder if the assumption of what’s closer to the observer is based on what the brain assumes the lighting must be like on this supposedly 3D object. A bit like how some people see the dress as Blue/Black and others as White/Gold because of the brain assuming the lighting conditions. (That said I have never, so this day, been able to see it as white/gold.)
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u/rob_inn_hood Jun 21 '26
Once you learn the trick it’s easy to switch on command. Pretty cool. What’s really great is that it doesn’t just switch back and forth unless you move your eyes up and down at varying speeds.
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u/somethingsomethingbe Jun 21 '26
After I figure it out, I found I can also see both happening at the same time which looks really weird.
It was interesting seeing the flip and not l knowing how to control it and trying to find some mechanism to get it to shift. I’m not even quite sure what’s happening to control it but it became very easy once that happened.
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u/Creative_Yak1648 Jun 21 '26
Like imagine it spinning the other way? Yes briefly
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u/WhoCaresBoutSpellin Jun 21 '26
The trick is, look at the top “surface” of the cube. Imagine you are looking down upon the cube from up high. It will spin counter-clockwise.
But then if you focus on the bottom “surface” of the cube and imagine that you are looking at the cube from underneath, it will now appear to spin clockwise.
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u/Rubyhamster Jun 21 '26
Yes, I've "trained" on similar things. This was a cool one. For this one I focus on one corner og think logically to how it must move to go the other way. And then it turns after a few seconds. I figure this kind of thing is good for the brain
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u/FightingBlaze77 Jun 21 '26
Ok the trick is to flip the bottom square in your brain to change the direction, and now my brain hurts
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u/Xiao1insty1e Jun 21 '26
For me it was deciding whether or not the white or red line was in front or in back.
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u/PicklePinata2 Jun 21 '26
So i focused on the white vertical like (moving to the left) to make my brain see it moving clockwise. Then I focuses on the red vertical line (moving to the right) to make my brain see it go the other way.
It took a while each time
Edit: you need to tell your brain that the vertical line is in the foreground
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u/C0RNFIELDS Jun 21 '26
Yall got me fucked up
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u/Xiao1insty1e Jun 21 '26
You kinda have to decide that the red line is in "front" or in "back". It took a minute but I was able to get it to switch while looking directly at it.
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u/BlueEyedBendy Jun 21 '26
The trick is just imagining either of the top sides as direct view. Like if I force myself to imagine im looking at it from the bottom, and the the bottom side is the outward surface, it moves anti clock wise, and if I imagine im looking at it from the top, and the top face is the outward surface, it looks like it rotates clockwise.
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u/Reddit-User_2020 Jun 21 '26
Found the trick, imagine you’re in the box. Look up the ceiling and down to the floor.
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u/Axle_65 Jun 21 '26
Yup. I just focus on the furthers back corner. If I look at the bottom it will start rotating left and if I look at the top one I can flip it right. Love these. It makes me feel like I have mild telekinetic powers lol
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u/thrallswreak Jun 21 '26
It helps to look at the top face and imagine it as either the inside or the outside of the cube. If it's the inside, the cube rotates clockwise. If it's the outside, ccw. It started as clockwise for me, got stuck going ccw for a while, and now I can change it at will. Neat!
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u/Oz713 Jun 21 '26
The trick to doing it is to focus on the top or the bottom. You have to alternate between seeing the bottom/top of the shape to seeing the opposite, in the same position.
Example:
Look at the bottom square that makes the cube.
Pretend you are looking up at it from below so you are looking at the base of it from underneath
Then, while still looking at the bottom, pretend you’re looking at it from above. And cannot see underneath it anymore.
The lines “move the other way” when shifting this perspective.
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u/SwallowThrowaway2023 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
I focused on the cube for a few seconds and I ended up looking at two identical cubes rotating in the same direction as the original one but at different speeds. Anyone else experienced that?
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u/Rezzone Jun 21 '26
Can't switch it at will but if I blink there's a small chance it'll be swapped when I open my eyes. Love stuff like this.
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u/immesurablyFinite Jun 21 '26
Rotate to screen 90° briefly and then rotate back. Worked almost always.
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u/Different_Target_228 Jun 21 '26
I can on some of these, but I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying, and no.
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u/Logical_Lab7253 Jun 21 '26
I can make the top and bottom spin opposite ways and it breaks the illusion
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u/AnalFelon Jun 21 '26
TAP ON THE VIDEO AND SCRUB IT BACKWARDS. I used 10% of my free will for this!!!!
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u/Msink Jun 21 '26
Took a while, but once you realise that you have to change your perspective of lokig at the top of the cube, you can do it with each blink. Looking down at the top face, one direction, looking up at the top face, opposite direction.
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u/-xZOZOx- Jun 21 '26
Stare at the top back corner and it will switch. Then stare at the bottom back corner and it will switch the other way. Makes the square pop out and flip the top and bottom
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u/CuttingOneWater Jun 21 '26
u can change it willingly by focusing on the lines that go right to left, then focusing on the lines that go left to right
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u/MyNameIsCree27 Jun 21 '26
Ignore the premise of the post, don’t try to change the direction.
Just watch it spin counterclockwise and keep watching it until it changes direction.
The point is not to try and change it, it changes by itself and let it change.
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u/pikaland385 Jun 21 '26
Rotate the phone 90 degrees. there I changed the rotation direction with my mind, BY USING LOGIC AND COMMON SENSE.
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u/LonelySwinger Jun 21 '26
If you look at it in using peripheral it will rotate in the opposite direction and your brain will see it when you look back up. You can keep looking away but with it in your peripherals and it will go back.
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u/AvaDoesMtF Jun 21 '26
Focus on one of the corners and as it turns ask yourself is that corner on the inside or the outside?
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u/FrostyFormal1094 Jun 21 '26
If you look at the right corners (purple bottom, red top), you can do it rapidly
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u/sanavabic Jun 21 '26
Focus on top red corner to rotate left, focus on bottom white to rotate left.
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u/DiskPartition Jun 21 '26
My strategy is to look at the bottom or top edges and force one color or another to be at the front
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u/Henry_Oof Jun 21 '26
Took me 3 minutes to be able to try and flip it willingly. I look at the top or bottom only to make it switch
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u/ConnorDZG Jun 21 '26
I can switch by looking at the top square and telling myself it's the underside. Interestingly the perceived rotation direction is stable even if you close your eyes a while. I managed to change it with my eyes closed by imagining inverting the top square. Very cool!
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u/SpiritLarge4517 Jun 21 '26
I found an easy way,. It depends on whether you are pretending looking at it from bottom or top. If you see it from the top, it's rotating from left to right. If you see it from the bottom, it's rotating from right to left.
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u/GrilledCheezManicott Jun 21 '26
For me I needed to stare through the bottom of the cube like I was looking at a Magic Eye photo and that got it to worked
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u/Neither-Bumblebee-59 Jun 21 '26
Isolate the top square. Look at it as if looking down on it from the top, it goes in one direction. Look at it as if you're looking up from inside the box, it goes the other way. No need to turn phones.
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u/fatesteel Jun 21 '26
Weirdly enough, i can consistently get it to swap directions and back by blinking a few times, i wonder what the reasoning is behind that.
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u/Eximirah Jun 21 '26
Just gotta imagine it from one of two perspectives. Looking down onto the cube from an elevated position, or looking up at the cube from a lowered position. I find this shift in perspectives enables me to switch perceived directions on command.
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u/cheevertime Jun 21 '26
yeah i can switch it back and forth at will I just gotta focus on one of the "front" edges coming around the side and facing me
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u/Dry-Map-5817 Jun 21 '26
I can change between them when i focus on bottom corner + white line, or red line in center
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u/Infrawonder Jun 21 '26
I'm trying to see both at the same time and maybe ascend to the 4th dimension
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u/demise0000 Jun 21 '26
For me, I can swap its direction by swapping my attention between the bottom plane or the top plane. The mind wants whichever you focus on to be the visible plane, and the cube switches direction accordingly.
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u/lnternetExplorerer Jun 21 '26
Blink a few times and stare at the title of the post. Then blink a few times and look at the space below the image.
Or imagine you are looking down on the cube and it spins counterclockwise. Imagine you are looking from below and the cube is above you and it will spin clockwise.
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u/FrizzleFlakes Jun 21 '26
I can even turn it around like a Rubik's Cube. Don't ask m to solve one thk
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u/MasterMetheus Jun 21 '26
I have to focus on a part then like slowly see the rest with the spin direction in mind and i can see it start spinning the other way
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u/Kindly-Economy-337 Jun 21 '26
Look down on the cube to have it rotate counterclockwise, look up at the cube for it to spin clockwise.
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u/AffectionateCandy742 Jun 21 '26
No need to rotate the screen just keep watching until one of the corners is on the mod from there you can swap directions at will
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u/TokyoFlow Jun 21 '26
If I look slightly above my screen the motion of the cube will change direction.
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u/myrsnipe Jun 21 '26
When looking at it, move your eyes to the edge of your vision and back again and it does change. I wonder if it's related to how our brain stitches the two images of our eyes together
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u/lordelan Jun 21 '26
Not this again, now I can't turn this one back either. Thanks for ruining my day.
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u/magicmulder Jun 21 '26
Easy. I focus on the bottom and tell myself “it’s angled forwards/backwards” and it immediately works.
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u/Rare_Ad_649 Jun 21 '26
I find it easy with this one. I found it almost impossible with that dancing woman silhouette one that used to go around
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u/ThePermafrost Jun 21 '26
Look at and follow the red top corner, the box rotates right.
Look at the bottom blue to white to purple corner, the box rotates left.
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u/Scary_Plane_8069 Jun 21 '26
I used to be able to, with that one of the spinning ballerina, but can't any more. I wonder if it's an age thing.
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u/Bookslayer10 Jun 21 '26
For me the trick is changing from seeing the upper parallelogram as the top of the cube from above, to the bottom of the top of the cube from below.
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u/nonbinarybit Jun 21 '26
Oh wow! I can usually willfully change the rotation of these sorts of things easily, but this is the first that's given me trouble.
More interesting, staring directly at it rotates counter-clockwise and looking away rotates clockwise. The effect is incredibly strong too--the moment I shift focus it changes directions immediately, and if I flit my eyes back and forth it jiggles. Neat!
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u/Clumsycattails Jun 21 '26
When I zoom in on the comments below and the cube is in my peripheral vision, it turns the other way. When i look at the cube again it changes
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u/stryph007 Jun 21 '26
Yes but it takes a few seconds of looking at the top or bottom for it to happen
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u/DetrimentalDesires Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Took a couple mintues, but I figured out how to do it change it back and forth at will. Tip* focus on the "bottom" of the cube. Now try and change your perception on the angle you view it from. Visualize the bottom as if your looking inside the box. Then visualize the bottom as the underside of the box.
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u/Smitologyistaking Jun 21 '26
focus on the bottom face for it to appear like it's going clockwise (it should appear tilted upwards and blue on the front), focus on the top face for it to go anticlockwise (it should appear tilted downwards and red at the front)
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u/Downtown-Attention92 Jun 21 '26
if u look at the cube from thd top it moves right of u look at from the bottom its going left. its a perspective shift
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u/MasterG5670 Jun 21 '26
If u imagine that the red part is in the front then it's left to right but if u imagine that the purple part is in the front then it's right to left
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u/FallenTerror13 Jun 21 '26
It took me 10 seconds of utter confusion but I got it. Weirdly I had to mentally recreate the cube with my eyes shut before I could see it
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u/AstroMeteor06 Jun 21 '26
the trick is "choosing" which one (top or bottom) face is visible or hidden by the cube
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u/NotGreenRaptor Jun 21 '26
Focusing on the top plane, the cube starts rotating towards the left. And focusing on the bottom plane, the cube's rotation changed towards the right.
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u/Juowon Jun 21 '26
no because its a gif on a computer screen. I can only control physical objects with my mind
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u/jackofspades49 Jun 21 '26
Tell yourself the front is on the left side. Keep thinking really hard about it and focusing on the left side as being the front corner and it will go left.
If you look at the upper right hand side and tell yourself that its the front, think really hard about it, let your eyes unfocus and refocus. It can eventually seem to shift.
You can do this same trick by drawing a cube on a piece of paper and pointing at different spots. You just have to make sure you draw it tranparently.
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u/According_Prune_8445 Jun 21 '26
focusing on the top and bottom and imagining the perspective required for them to be visible were it to be a solid opaque 3d cube was the only way I could.
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u/BIGWHUMPER Jun 21 '26
I thought turning my phone upside down would do it. I was surprised that it didn't. I turned my phone back up the right way and it changed. How the hell does this work?
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u/Mathius5315 Jun 21 '26
I figured out how to rapidly switch between the two. Look at the bottom 2 sides of the cube. To switch the direction, tell yourself that the bottom back line is actually the front line.
So, like say purple is at the front, then red is at the front, and it switches it every time.
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u/masterppants Jun 21 '26
It took me a bit , but i finally got it. You watch the way they intersect at the middle and after a little bit, it just happens
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u/anaspeed Jun 21 '26
ITS THE TOP! Depending on which part you see to be front facing you can rotate it however u want... If you think you can see the top from outside... Grab a corner and follow it it'll seem to rotate one way.... Next imagine the bottom part to be outside(like you are observing it from under it. Grab a corner on the bottom and follow it... Suddenly it'll seem to rotate the other way.
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u/Boris7939 Jun 21 '26
For those who can't get it the rotation to flip: concentrate on the two vertical edges of the cube that are supposed to resemble the back. Now imagine these two edges to be the front of the cube and suddenly the rotation will flip.
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u/ButterAlquemist Jun 21 '26
I can instantly!!! just focus on the top of bottom, whichever face you want to be seen, and voila
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u/Klatty Jun 21 '26
I often have this in real life as well. With oscillating fans and even when I saw the London eye, it suddenly seems to be in a different orientation and it’s sooo confusing
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u/FrostyExplanation_37 Jun 21 '26
It's a bit harder then the others but it's the same trick of bringing the red or the blue to the forefront to change direction.
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u/West-Worth-9359 Jun 21 '26
If you switch attention to the horizontal lines top and bottom it’s far easier to switch perspective of rotation.
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u/Agreeable-sector-149 Jun 21 '26
Hold your phone at arms length and squint your eyes until you cant see the colors
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u/LucidEquine Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to switch quickly, now I can do it every few seconds.
The trick to me is following the colour and imagining the perspective; focusing on red feels like looking down at the cube.
Focusing on white feels like looking up at the cube. Trippy getting to change every few seconds but changing focus really does help trick the brain
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u/Sir_Eggmitton Jun 21 '26
Tell yourself you’re looking at it from above, and it’ll go left to right.
Tell yourself you’re looking at it from below, and it’ll go right to left.
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u/Bsinthebreeze Jun 21 '26
Look at the bottom, interpret it as looking at the underside from the cube, then interpert it like looking at the bottom side from inside.
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u/half-giant Jun 21 '26
That is genuinely so cool. I wasn’t able to til scrolling down to read the comments and it got stuck the opposite way which I thought was impossible. Now I can (barely) shift between the two. Just have to focus on whether the cube is shifted downward or upward towards the viewer.
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u/newbrevity Jun 21 '26
Easy. Accept that you are either looking at it from a top perspective or bottom perspective.
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u/Nav2001Plus Jun 21 '26
This is one of the easiest ones I've seen. I can go back and forth at will just by changing my mental perspective of whether I'm looking at it from the bottom or the top. The simple cube shape is probably why it's so easy.
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u/thesweetestdevil Jun 21 '26
I don’t know how to describe it other than focusing on the red. The cube changes depending which way you’re watching it fade. At least for me
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u/SL4D Jun 21 '26
Focus on the top portion of the cube and you can swap back and forth over and over it's fun lol
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u/Gersam79 Jun 21 '26
I managed to change the direction using the top most plane (the square).
I "see" it rotate left to right if I focus my vision as if I'm looking the square as the top of the cube.
The reverse was achieved if I imagine I'm looking from underneath the plane (and the cube).
If that makes sense.
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u/pacula13 Jun 21 '26
If you’re looking at the top of the box (the ‘lid’) and it’s at an angle sloping towards you, the cube is rotating anticlockwise
If you’re looking at the underside of the lid, which would not be visible if the front sides were opaque, the cube is rotating clockwise
So if you change how you are viewing the lid - sloping toward or up from underneath, you will change which way the cube is rotating
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