Wobbly Circles

thingiverse

The fascinating phenomenon of Wobbly Circles is an optical illusion that occurs when a pair of circles are superimposed upon one another. By carefully aligning two concentric rings with the edges being a few percent displaced from each other, you will notice that when observed as whole units they create circles in motion as opposed to remaining static in their true shapes. As the relative movement speeds up it generates what can only be described as oscillation between their outer radii resulting in them constantly swinging out and back. Upon taking into account our eyes' innate bias towards following curves and the circles acting like lenses to guide sight toward those exact points where the alignment happens smoothly along the way round we arrive at something incredibly striking indeed – Wobbly Circles!