Why does light seem to spin the opposite direction when it starts to spin really fast?
In: Physics
Your question is not really clear, so I’m gonna take stab at what I think you mean and you can correct me if I’m wrong. “Why do some things look like they’re spinning the wrong direction when they spin really fast?” The answer has to do with cameras and lighting. Take a camera, for instance, that records at 60 frames per second. This means that it takes a picture sixty times every second, and compiles these pictures into a video. If you are filming a spinning wheel, then every picture catches the wheel at a different point in its spin. If the wheel spins fast enough, every picture is taken when the wheel is at the same point in its spin, so it looks like it is not moving – every single picture looks the same so it looks like nothing is happening. If the wheel spins even faster, it looks like it is moving backwards. Faster still, it goes forward again, and the cycle goes on. Now, that is why it is true for cameras, but sometimes you see it with your own eyes. This happens because the lights in your house work like camera shutters. The lights flicker at 50/60 to 100/120 times per second. Since you can only see when the lights are on, your eyes basically experience the world at 50/60 to 100/120 frames per second. It is especially pronounced with those long fluorescent tube lights and some LEDs.
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