When internet users take a break from trolling YouTube videos attacking each other’s ethnicity, bloodline and intelligence, they like to pool their collective know-how for the greater good.

And if you believe that above statement, you’re in need of a reality check.

The latest thing (I call it this as there really is no word that sums up how little of a f**k I give with more precision) doing the rounds is a picture of a dress. But wait, there’s more. Heated arguments rage over whether the picture depicts a white and gold dress or a blue and black dress. Here is the picture:

I would tell you what I think but that would make it seem like I care even just a little. Another picture below, with the middle image representing the original image. The left is white-balanced as if the image is white-gold and the right is white-balanced to blue-black.

People have devoted a great deal of yesterday and today to debating this on social media platforms around the world. Can science provide some kind of answer? Wired says yes:

This image…hits some kind of perceptual boundary…Human beings evolved to see in daylight, but daylight changes color (sic). That chromatic axis varies from the pinkish red of dawn, up through the blue-white of noontime, and then back down to reddish twilight…

So people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black.

So glad you took a break from finding a cure for cancer to solve this pressing issue.

Well that’s me done. You can read more about the science behind the conundrum HERE, or you can go outside and play in the traffic, they are equally as daft in my eyes.

[sources:gawker&wired]