Tales from the Prep Room: The Ames Room

The Ri’s Andrew Marmery takes a break from Christmas Lecture rehearsals to describe how he designed a built a life-size Ames room for the show. The distorted room was named after ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames, who invented the optical illusion in 1934. The floor, ceiling and side walls of the room are trapezoidal in shape but when viewed from a specific fixed point it appears to be rectangular. As Andy demonstrates, anyone standing inside the room appears unusually large or unexpectedly small. More about Ames Rooms The Ri is on Twitter: and Facebook: and Tumblr: Our editorial policy: Subscribe for the latest science videos: