Editing Temporal Tops (section)

== Why This Works ==

This demonstration is focusing on the effect known as Temporal Aliasing. ''Temporal Aliasing'' is when an object is moving quickly, or an image is changing rapidly, and the motion is too fast for our eyes to follow. Our brains then receive the blurred image, and try to process it as a non-blurry image. The result is that we "see" a pattern, color, or motion that isn't actually there. The tops are known as Benham's Tops, and were originally made by a toymaker in the early 20th century. The effect that is seen on them is based on how quickly the tops are spinning. If the tops are spinning fast, then they will have distinct circles on them and a greater color change. If the tops are spinning slowly, then the lines are blurry, and there might be some mild color change seen on them. The tops with a solid black side, however, have a unique feature due to our eyes. Everyone's eyes are slightly different, even when it comes to the number of images, or "frames", we see per second. On average, we can see 60 frames per second, but individually we see either slightly more or slightly less than that. The tops with a solid black side, when spinning, create a color illusion based on how long the black lines appear to be. Since our eyes all see slightly different numbers of frames, we will all see different shades of colors in the lines!