Why do tires on cars look like they are going backwards when an automoblie is moving fast? They rims have the appearance of the tire spinning backwards instead of forward.
2007-06-17 15:14:13 · 3 answers · asked by Sylvester G 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
This will vary depending on the light source you see the wheels in. It is a strobe effect. Noticable in the wagon wheels of cowboy movies, from the klieg movie lights. You are seeing light reflected to your eyes at different speeds than your eyes can identify. If you receive light waves at the same speed, no motion seen, faster..the wheels move forward..slower..the wheels appear to go backwards.
2007-06-17 15:25:11 · answer #1 · answered by orion_1812@yahoo.com 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is known as the "wagon wheel effect". It's an optical illusion caused by your brain trying to fill in missing visual information, usually under strobocopic conditions (like film frames, video frames or even the pulses of alternating current electricity)
Anyway, here's some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon-wheel_effect
2007-06-17 15:29:15 · answer #2 · answered by byron 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This appears to happen when the automobile is shown in a movie, it is caused by the shutter speed of the camera and is known as the stroboscopic effect.
2007-06-20 05:06:28 · answer #3 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋