"Incredible Shade Illusion" is an amazing science experiment

(CBS) - Who needs Harry Potter magic when you've got science to amaze you with incredible optical illusions like the video above? Watch closely as the effective use of light and shadow completely transforms the color white into black and back again.

Ta da - science!  The video was done by YouTube user brusspup who explains the illusion as such: 

The illusion works because of the "shadow" that falls on the checkerboard. Lets think of the square that the shadow falls on. Now picture that the shadow doesnt exist, you would see a light colored square surrounded by the dark colored squares. But when the shadow falls on top of that light colored square, the shadow causes the shade to become darker but it also causes the surrounding darker squares to become darker. So within the shadow region the brightness and darkness of the squares are still relative to one another. But they are no longer relative to the squares that lie outside of the shadow.

Isn't science just so completely fascinating?! To check out more work by brusspup you can check out her YouTube page here.