Eli5 I don’t know how many people experience this, but when you suddenly watch a clock, and watch that one tick of the “second” hand, is it just me or does it actually take longer than a second is supposed to? Why?

Question

Why does this happen? It usually seems to pause for a bit and then continue. Can someone please explain why?

In: Other

Answer 1

It’s called [chronostasis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronostasis). Essentially your eye movement would normally create an incomprehensible blurry image. Your brain drops this blurry image and then covers up the gap with an image of the next thing you look at, the second hand on your clock in this case.