Time Fountain - Optical Illusion

This device creates the illusion that a simple stream of water droplets can defy the known laws of physics. By controlling a set of flickering LEDs, the dripping water can appear to slow down, freeze in mid-air, and even reverse in direction. This illusion exists because the brain attempts to fill in the gaps between flashes with its anticipated motion. It is the same reason that your brain interprets the 24 frames/second of a movie to be in-motion, rather than recognizing the individual still frames .The credit for this device belongs to Nate True. You can learn how to build your own Time Fountain at: http://cre.ations.net/creation...

Channel: Howto & Style
Uploaded: March 31, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Author: shengd

Length: 01:59
Rating: 4.71
Views: 563362

Tags: fountain illusion optical opticalillusion time

Video Comments

ChilapaOfTheAmazons (August 25, 2008 at 7:54 pm)

It's beautiful!

Intoxicantt (August 24, 2008 at 6:47 pm)

I must have one of these

joaquing93 (August 10, 2008 at 9:23 pm)

donde se compra eso?

ciucinciu (August 10, 2008 at 8:24 pm)

:)))))))))

scarredseraph23 (August 3, 2008 at 4:49 pm)

Ahh, I see exactly what you mean. Good analysis. I was curious about how that worked.

Mattyew (July 31, 2008 at 11:44 pm)

can the drops be interacted with in fake time?

CaraSohma (July 28, 2008 at 12:57 am)

I should have used better wording. It would have to be a "stream of droplets" and not a "steady stream". You win. Nice talking with you ;)

atican (July 28, 2008 at 12:53 am)

Looking at this again, I was focusing on when there was a close-up of one drop. That might be where the confusion is. There are actually several drops illuminated at once. It's like a series of pictures being taken of different drops hitting the same locations at different moments. By syncopating the lights correctly, it looks like drops are suspended in mid-air.

atican (July 28, 2008 at 12:48 am)

Well, first off, a 'stream' is different from a 'stream of water droplets.' A stream is one continuous flow of water. A stream of droplets is just one drop following another. There *is* a stream of water droplets, but the light illuminates only one drop at a time. At the moment it's illuminated, there is only one drop present. Otherwise, we'd see all the drops as they come down. We don't perceive fast enough to notice it.

CaraSohma (July 28, 2008 at 12:40 am)

It isn't obvious to everyone, someone asked me about it. And it says in the description, "...creates the illusion that a simple stream of water droplets..." emphasis on "stream". And it certainly looks like a stream at 1:15. I could be wrong about my interpretation, but I don't think so.