The Internet has been the source of much debate, with headline-worthy disagreements, including the color of a dress and now whether a cat is going up or down a staircase.
The picture was first posted to Imgur and then later 9Gag, and at first glance, it seems as though the cat is walking up the stairs. Check again, however, and it seems as though the picture has flipped.
As mentioned, this is not the first time the Internet has been divided over a seemingly unimportant issue. Many will remember the debacle over #TheDress, which some said was blue and black and others suggested was white and gold. The debate got even more heated when celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian got involved, posting their own opinions on Twitter. It was later revealed by the designers of the dress that it was in fact blue and black.
In the case of the cat on the stairs, appropriately dubbed #CatOnStairs, many seem to have their own scientific explanations as to whether the cat is going up or down. For example, some say that the cat is going down because the viewer can see the ledges on the stairs. Others say that the light indicates that the cat is going down the stairs. Others still have different explanations.
"Captain here," said one 9Gag user. "The cat is going up, the tail is used to balance the body of the cat and in this case the tail is elevated upwards so that when the cat uses its rear legs to push up it pushes parallel to the line on which gravity is working on the tail to stabilize itself, the tail is not perfectly in line with the line on which gravity is acting in the photo due to the movement to stabilize the body."
Despite these seemingly scientific explanations, there are still people adamantly defending what they think about the cat.
While the debacle surrounding the dress eventually had a resolution that involved the designers saying that it was blue and black, the cat going down the stairs has been passed around the Internet for a while before it finally began making headlines, suggesting that we may never find out which direction the cat is really going. Of course this won't stop people from adamantly defending their opinion.
What will the next controversial optical illusion be? Only time will tell, but it's sure to be as important as the dress and cat.
