Sometimes when you look at an analog clock with hour/minute/second hands, the second hand looks like it moves backwards initially for 1 tick then looks normal after that. Why?

Question

Sometimes when you look at an analog clock with hour/minute/second hands, the second hand looks like it moves backwards initially for 1 tick then looks normal after that. Why?

In: Other

Answer 1

When you move your eyes quickly from one object to another your brain basically shuts off your vision while your eyes are moving to the new object. It does this because the blurry motion you would experience in your field of vision would be disorienting. There is also a slight delay between when light enters your eye and when your brain can process that into an image in your mind. Your brain takes advantage of this delay to retroactively “back fill” the period your eyes were in motion with the image of the new object. Thus, when you move your eyes to look at a clock, your brain takes the first image of the clock it processes and tricks you into thinking you were looking at this image during the time your eyes were still in motion to the clock. Thus, your brain makes you perceive that one second on the clock for longer than your eyes were actually looking at it.

Your brain does all of this for continuity and fluidity of your vision.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronostasis