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Necker Cube


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The Necker Cube, discovered by the Swiss chrystallographer L A Necker in 1832, illustrates the capacity of the human mind to build hypotheses about what it sees when there is insufficient data. In fact, because there is so little data, there are two possible hypotheses as to the orientation of the cube. When you look at this diagram, your mind flips between the two orientations, but never 'sees' both orientations at the same time because this is something a 'real' cube could never do!

This exercise is very suitable for a communications course when you want to demonstrate that what is transmitted is not necessarily what is received. The presentation slides show the basic Necker Cube above plus two other cubes with sufficient data to make the orientation unambiguous.

Buy the Necker Cube presentation on Gumroad

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