tv flashes


 
Turn on a tv set. Turn off the room lights. Hold up a finger in front of the tv screen so that you see the screen behind your finger. Wave the finger rapidly back and forth. Instead of seeing one finger moving back and forth, you see 3 or 4 copies of the same finger. Why? A television's picture flashes on and off 60 times each second. When the picture is on you see your finger in one position. Then the picture goes off while your finger is moving to another position. During that time there is not enough light for you to notice the moving finger. Then the tv picture comes on again making enough light to see the finger in its new position. Your brain remembers what it saw just 1/60 second before, so you see the finger where it was and where its new position is.