Stuck Indoors? Optical Illusion Science Fun On a Stick!
Can you make an empty fishbowl suddenly have fish in it? Can you make a dog jump backwards and forwards? Can you make it rain? You can with a simple flip stick illusion!
This quick project is a great way to have some fun and learn a quick bit of science about how our eyes and brain work to see the world.
What you need:
- Paper – stiff paper is better
- Crayons or markers
- Pencil
- Tape or stapler
What you do:
- Cut out two rectangles from the stiff paper.
- Draw a picture on each rectangle.
- Tape a pencil to the back of one of the images.
- Staple or tape the images back to back.
- Roll the pencil between your hands to flip the images quickly.
Why it works:
This idea of flipping from one still picture to the next very quickly is the same idea that makes cartoons work. Cartoons are simply thousands of still pictures flipped by our eyes so quickly that we think we are seeing a character actually moving. The flip stick is a very simple cartoon that takes advantage of the slower rate that our eyes and brain process information compared to how fast the stick is flipping!
