These Illusions Fool Almost Everyone

Audio illusions show us that hearing is about more than just sensing frequency. Which ones trick you every time? Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial and get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically. https://snatoms.com/

▀▀▀

A big thank you to Titus Grenyer over at Pep Organ for showing us around the Sydney Town Hall Organ, to Dr. Diana Deutsch for providing her illusions and insight into the field, to Casey Connor for advice on building sound illusions, and to Dr. Michael Bach for providing the motion-bounce illusion.

Pep organ: https://ve42.co/peporgan
Casey Connor’s Psychoacoustics: https://ve42.co/CaseyConnor

▀▀▀

References: https://ve42.co/AudioIllusionsRefs

Images & Video:

Aircraft Detection before radar, 1917-1940 - https://ve42.co/DetectionBeforeRadar
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force operator Denise Miley - https://ve42.co/ChainHomeRadar
Daventry Experiment Van, operated by “Jock” Herd - https://ve42.co/ChainHome
Perfect fifth - https://ve42.co/PerfectFifth
Denge acoustic mirrors - The original uploader was Jksolomon at English Wikipedia. - https://ve42.co/DengeSoundMirror
Denge sound mirrors | Sound Mirrors https://ve42.co/SoundMirrorsDenge
Mayer telescope in 1880, US patent number 224199. NAE Website - Acoustic Source Localization Techniques and Their Applications https://ve42.co/AcousticSoundLocalizationTechniques
Professor Mayer’s Topophone - https://ve42.co/Topophone
AR_Speaker_v12 - Download Free 3D model by steveMarketscale [6ca6a0a] - Sketchfab https://ve42.co/ARSpeaker
Ear Phenotypes https://ve42.co/Earhenotypes

▀▀▀
Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:

Adam Foreman, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Burt Humburg, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Josh Hibschman, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, wolfee

▀▀▀
Directed by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller
Hosted by Derek Muller
Written by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller
Edited by Jack Saxon and Peter Nelson
Animated by Fabio Albertelli, David Szakaly, and Ivy Tello
Illustrations by Jakub Misiek
Filmed by Derek Muller
Produced by Sulli Yost, Derek Muller, Rob Beasley Spence, Emily Lazard, Tori Brittain, Emily Zhang, Petr Lebedev, Gregor Čavlović, and Gabe Bean

Thumbnail contributions by Peter Sheppard and Ren Hurley

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Envato

Music from GarageBand, Virtual Piano, and Epidemic Sound