Why does the wheel of a fast moving car looks like it twirls back for moment and back to the front again?
In: Physics
This is called the stroboscopic effect, which is essentially an “error” of interpretation when continuous motion is represented by instantaneous pictures (so basically flickering)
If a wheel rotates in one direction and accelerates, it will reach a point where, if we consider the “frames” one by one, could be interpreted as moving backwards aswell.
For example, if you see two pictures of a wheel and the wheel in the second picture is rotated by 350°. How do you know it’s rotated by 350° in one direction and not by 10° in the other? Well without further background knowledge you simply don’t.
The human brain is prone to such illusions and some of them depend on said background knowledge, like these illusions of the rotating face or ballerina where some people see it rotating clockwise, some counterclockwise and some alternating between the two.
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