What is the fastest thing we can see?
How well we separate fast moving objects has a lot to do with the size of the object; it also has to do with our innate abilities to resolve two moving objects as one.
Studies have been done on different creatures’ ability to resolve two moving objects as one, using flickering lights. Those experiments measured the ability of vertebrates (mammals, birds, lizards) to separate flashing lights. When the lights are blinking at a high frequency this could be seen as a solid light, depending on the animal’s ability to separate the flashes.
It turns out that the smaller and lighter animals can respond to visual stimuli much quicker than larger animals.
A mouse will be able to separate a rapid series of flashing lights as separate flashes, whereas an elephant will see it as one unblinking light. Dogs can take visual information about 25% faster than humans.
This allows smaller prey the ability to dodge things: a survival advantage.
Younger versus older
Interestingly, this is also a factor of aging: as we age, the ability to resolve two blinking lights as separate entities gets weaker. Youngsters will be able to discern a series of flashing lights that will look as an unblinking light to an older person.
There is a consequence to this. The way our nervous system perceives time has a lot to do with how quickly sensory information is processed. If we are able to see fast moving objects in separate snippets, our frame of reference on speed is different.
For children, adults seem to be moving in very slow motion as their perception of normal speed is different than ours. Take a recording that is played at a slightly higher frequency of frames/second than normal. A younger person may be able to see the individual pictures when the video is shown, whereas to an older person, the pictures can appear as a blur.
This could be why youngsters see time as moving very slowly; everything around them seems to be moving at turtle-speed.
Fast moving objects
The thing is: if things are moving very fast on the same path, say a metronome, the composite of all the images would make the final picture that we see as a blur of a thousand metronome pendulums in a fluid arc. Similarly, the tick-tick-tick of the metronome would blend into one sound as the frequency of the beats increase.
In a youtube video, the beats start at 90 BPM and move to a speed of 10,000 BPM. As the sound moves into the thousands beats/minute, the beats no longer become separable by our senses. At 10,000 beats, the sound is one long high-pitched tone.
As things - particularly small things - become faster or closer or very similar, they take on distinct and unexpected characteristics.
Picture Credits:
- Paco. Metrónomo, taken on August 4, 2002.
- Tero Laakso. Mouse, Taken on Aug 14,2008
- Randi Hausken. Balder 5, taken on April 29, 2007.
- Matt Ryall why Ferris wheel, Taken on May 9, 2009.