Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications

"Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications" by Matthew Luckiesh is a book from the early 1900's that looks closely at how our eyes can trick us, why these tricks happen, and how they show up in art, buildings, and more. The author wants to explain visual illusions, which don’t move, by looking at experiments but also admits that you can’t always measure what people see perfectly. The book starts by saying that what we see isn’t always what’s really there, like when we guess how far away a mountain is or when a white paper looks pink. It talks about how our brains use what we already know and expect to understand what we see, arguing that illusions aren't just mistakes but how our minds make sense of things. This introduction prepares readers for a deeper study of different types of illusions later in the book.