Brian McLean

We spend great effort into trying to capture moments, freeze-frame memories.

Drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography and home movies are all our attempts to remember something after it's gone.

But did you know that your brain and eyes are already hardwired to do this?

I'm not talking about memory, I'm talking about the fact that your eye continues to see an object for a split second after that object disappears.

I've been thinking about that fact for over 35 years.

Hi, I'm Brian McLean, and I'm doing the Science.org exam, Principle of Persistence of Vision.

Many of you are probably wondering, what is Persistence of Vision?

Well, it's really pretty.

Your eye is an amazing organ, but it has one little quirk.

It continues to see an object for a tenth of a second after the object disappears.

This principle is what makes movies, cartoons, and even TV possible.

Yep, that was me, 12 years old and going deep into the science of animation.

I didn't want to do my science fair project on the principle of persistence of vision.

I was forced to.

I wanted to do my science fair project on claymation, but my dad, he wouldn't let me.

He said, Brian, this is a science fair.

If you want to do claymation, you have to focus on the science that makes animation possible.

So I opened up my collection of encyclopedias, and I got to work.

It was here that I learned about this strange optical phenomenon called the principle of persistence of vision.

Of course, our brains play a huge role in this.