This little dragon appears to be looking at you. But if you rotate the base this way or that the dragon's head appears to turn the other way... Or if you stand the dragon on a shelf and walk about, the dragon's head follows you around the room. And yet it is simply a sheet of paper, cut and folded in a certain way. How does it work? When we see a solid object rotating, there are all sorts of clues that tell us what is going on, which way it is rotating, etc. The dragon gives us the wrong clues, because we mis-interpret what its shape is. The nose of the dragon appears to be pointing out towards the viewer, but in fact the dragon's head is concave. Have a look at the dragon from the back...

Can you see the strange way the dragon's head is folded? The dragon was designed by Jerry Andrus, and he calls it 'Eye-Foolery'.

Download the Dragon itself
                                                                

You can download the dragon as a PDF file. Right click to download the file. This is a 244k download.

You'll need the Adobe Acrobat reader on your computer.  It can be downloaded for free here.

Than, once you have printed the dragon out (a color printer is best since this is a color image) then you can cut out the dragon, fold and stick it, and you will be able to see this fantastic illusion yourself. When you print the page out, you will see that the instructions for folding the dragon are included. Please follow these instructions exactly.

Hint:  Print out two copies so you can use one as instructions while you cut up the other.