Is the dress black and blue or gold and white?

This question blew up the internet this past few days. My daughters brought the image to my attention last night, making the rounds on Twitter under various hashtags #TheDress, #blackandblue, etc. Everyone, and I mean everyone, including my family, @justinbieber, and @talyorswift saw different colours, or both, at different times of the day, or saw it change colors before their eyes. I have seen both, but  at first glance was black & blue.

First thought would be that it is one of those animated pictures, called GIFS, but it is not. You can screen shot the image, and it will still appear differently to various people.  Scientists are weighing in. Late night talk shows will be weighing in tonight. People are arguing in the streets, and fighting in school hallways across the planet!

Fact: The source which originally got the controversy to go viral, via Tumblr,  eventually determined the dress to be Black & Blue. In fact, other sources indicate the dress is ONLY sold in that color.

Mystery Solved: 

Human eyes are imperfect, and can be easily tricked to see one color and interpret as another. Our eyes are all different  by so many factors, and the reality is that geometric shapes, angles, lighting, clever placement, and a thousand other things can mess up our brains ability to properly distinguish color. These illusions have been studied for years.

Example:  How many different color circles do you see in the box below?

The answer: Only Two (Blue & Green)

Reality: The dress is black and blue, but sometimes your brain is telling you it is gold & white, and that’s OK! You are human. Booyaaa…  mystery solved 🙂 Unless, of course, you wanna argue about it?