GCSEC: Shimmer Label

SHIMMER

THIS IS A NEW EXHIBIT IDEA. WE WOULD APPRECIATE COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS FOR CHALLENGE QUESTIONS.

Look at the different displayed patterns. Most people will notice some movement in one or more of them. Is there any one pattern where the movement is most noticeable? Are there any patterns where there is no noticeable movement?

One of the patterns is laminated. Hold that pattern in your hand. Is the movement more noticeable here as compared with the same pattern displayed in front of you?

Your eyes are always moving slightly back and forth and up and down. If an image in your eye were truly motionless, eventually your brain might become desensitized and ignore it. To prevent this happening, your eyes are constantly moving very slightly. The result is that the image of stationary objects is constantly moving on the retina in the back of your eye and your brain remains aware of it.

Normally we are not aware of this constant eye movement. Some of these patterns however accent the overlapping images on your retina, and most people will see a shimmering effect.

With the laminated pattern you can enhance the shimmering effect by moving it from side to side or in circles.

Woodworkers and others sometimes try to use extremely fine scales to measure distances very precisely. It is suspected that there is a physical limit to how accurately those scales can be read, due to small eye movements.

You can create your own patterns, varying the widths of the lines, the width of the white spaces, et cetera and see which ones show more shimmering.

Is this small eye movement just from side to side or is it in all directions? Why?

If the eye movement were just from side to side, the shimmering would only be seen just above and just below the center of the pattern. If the eye movement were just up and down, the simmering would only be seen just to the left and right of the center of the pattern. Therefore the eye movement must be in all directions.