Okay readers, you (well, Bill) did so well on that last test, almost immediately informing me of my mishearing of Brian Wilson's "Your Imagination", that I have something much more difficult. (I imagine – prove me wrong!)
Tonight when I was brushing my teeth with the electric toothbrush (which I do now and then strictly to accelerate global warming), at certain times when it was really vibrating against, say, my back molars, I looked at the digital clock (8:32, incidentally) and the seven (or fewer) little green bars that make up each number went into squigglevision like Dr. Katz. They actually seemed to wiggle independently of one another. Nothing else in the room exhibited this wiggling and I was in no way intoxicated. This is not the first time I have observed this phenomenon. I encourage you to attempt to replicate it and let me know what you find.
The bigger challenge is to answer this question: Why does that happen? Go to it. First prize is an Urban Rust CD. Second prize is two Urban Rust CDs. Third prize is you're fired.
Hello Memphis,
ReplyDeleteWell I tried this with my wimpy disposable Oral B battery driven electric toothbrush and nothing happened to the way I saw any of the several digital displays around the house. I don't think the toothbrush was powerful enough though to get my whole head or more importantly my eyes moving.
But even though I couldn't reproduce this I might have an explanation. I believe that LED lights are formed by electrons moving back and forth from one tiny place to another at very high speeds. Could it be that your electric toothbrush moves at exactly the same frequency as the electrons? In other words when you press on those back molars your head and eyes warp over into electron speed and moving together they produce Squigglevision.
I could buy a better electric toothbrush but not sure I want to see this anyway.
M.
I couldn't figure it out for sure, so I'll guess: It has something to do with the color of the light, the inherent detail in the clock display and the relative position of cones and rods in the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe finest detail is perceived by a very tiny part of the back of the eye, in which the cones (of rods and cones fame) are most highly concentrated. The cones are also in charge of seeing color. Also, there are specific cones in charge of the color green.
According to this website,
the eye constantly moves so that the light from all the parts of the thing you're looking at can fall into that "detail" region. Your brain does a constant computing job to put together a full picture of the detail.
My guess is that with the toothbrush back where it can really vibrate stuff in your head, it sets your eyes jiggling just enough to make it impossible for the brain to get an accurate picture of the detail because the cone region is jumping around too much. Thus "squiggle vision". It doesn't happen with other objects because: 1) Most other objects are a mix of colors, so they're being perceived by more than just the "green cones" and its easier for the brain to keep a bead on the detail. 2) Most other things you're looking at don't have the combination of detail and light intensity that the clock display has. Cones are detail and color sensitive, but not as sensitive to light as are rods.
Actually I think it's more likely to be number 1.
But I could be totally off base. I did get my information from the internet.
-Bill
i don't know why this would happen, but it reminds me of my high school english class. Mr Larson would stand in the same place during his entire lectures, would move very little the entire hour, and it became an often occurence. I would stare at his forehead and I would see his head grow in size, getting really really big against the green chalkboard background - then I could adjust my eyes and cause his head to get smaller and smaller and smaller. It was surreal, and for some reason it only happened in Mr Larsen's english class.
ReplyDeleteSo many strange things happened in Mr Larsen's class. I could write a book on the odd things he had us do, and the ways we tried to revolt against it.
He was the best teacher I had in high-school, even though I hated every day in his class. I thought about throwing up each morning so I didn't have to face him. But he was the best - I learned more in that class than any other in high school.....
weird. something about his growing/shrinking head.
OMG, that happened to me, too. I'm not crazy. I only got it to happen with my digital clock, so I couldn't figure out what was going on. I'm glad I finally found someone else who experienced this. Or, maybe we're both crazy. lol.
ReplyDeleteThis Website says that it has to do with the persistance of vision and the oscilating frequency of the numbers
ReplyDelete