The Ames Room
December 20, 2010
In an Ames Room two or more people of the same size standing in a space appear to be of dramatically different sizes, even though they are actually the same size. Adelbert Ames, Jr. (August 19, 1880 – 1955) was an American scientist who made contributions to physics, physiology, ophthalmology, psychology, philosophy, and physiological optics. The Ames Room is a distorted room that creates an optical illusion and as such doesn’t involve real shrinkage. It rather serves as a tool to illustrate the implications of downsizing the body. Before we are prepared to shrink the body, we need to prepare the mind.
Thanks Edwin.
[…] you can do to embrace the idea of shrinking: like standing next to a very tall person, or object, visiting an Ames room, or gently folding and tearing a sheet of paper in half. Then folding and tearing it in half again […]
[…] Spaninks, Zhang Ga and Philip Ziegler, to resurrect one of its favourite shrink experiences: the Ames room. An Ames room allows people to visually experience a shift in body size by means of optical […]