Does Her Majesty know?

Does Her Majesty know what Australian teens and a few very immature Australian adults are doing with her image on the five dollar note? Dear, dear me.

There are actually a couple of interesting things to see on the Australian $5 note. Have a look at the side that has the queen on it. Look at the lines of text that say stuff such as "this note is legal tender...." and that other boring stuff about the reserve bank. Are those lines of text a bit wonky on your five dollar note? Was your note manufactured on a Friday afternoon? Could it be a forgery?

Go fetch a ruler and check if the text is crooked. I think this might be an example of Blackmore's Tilt Orientation Illusion. Apparently some of your neurons in your primary visual cortex (V1) "respond more strongly to differences than to similarities in the visual scene." Its something to do with neural inhibition. Your brain is playing tricks with you! Don't worry, its all completely normal.

If you find psychological and perceptual phenomena such as visual illusions interesting, I couldn't recommend a better book than "Incredible visual illusions" by Al Seckel, (copyright 2003). It is absolutely full of fascinating photos, art works, diagrams and even a photo of an interesting sculpture. This book isn't dumbed-down for kiddies, it gives scientific but readable explanations.

There's another thing to see or not see, as the case may be, on this side of the Australian $5 note, if you are over the age of 16 years. If you fold the note lengthwise so that you can only see Her Majesty's chin and her shoulders, then fold it a number of times so that only this part of the Queen can be seen, then rotate it a quarter turn anti-clockwise, if you are pure of heart and destined for heaven, you will not see anything much.