Benham’s Top or Benham’s disk is named after Charles Benham, a toy maker but also an amateur scientist who contributed and published articles to the likes of Nature. Benham’s observation with a toy top was relayed through an article in Nature in 1894 that described a visual phenomenon generated by a toy top painted like the above image. When spun, the Fechner color effect is perceived. Not everyone perceives the same colors…
So, the animated gif below is simply a rapidly alternating image of a series of images like the one above. The colors that you see in the animated gif below do not exist which is the illusion. This illusion by the way, is not understood.
I see black, silver and light gold or light brown arcs… What colors do you see?
