The effect of humming on vision
A Dec 1967 article ("Effect of humming on vision") by William Rushton in the journal Nature reported that:
I'm sure that's interesting, but it's a response to Rushton's article published four months later that I find more interesting. A former member of the Air Training Corps described how it was possible, by humming (or rather, "purring"), to make your head vibrate such that, when looking at a spinning propeller, the propeller would seem to stop in mid-air. By increasing or decreasing the intensity of humming/purring, one could then determine in which direction the propeller was rotating.
I haven't tested this out to see if it works, but if any of you do have a chance to test it out, please report back with your results.
Humming causes the eye to vibrate and this can produce a strobo-scopic effect when a rotating black and white strobe disk is viewed in non-fluctuating light.
I'm sure that's interesting, but it's a response to Rushton's article published four months later that I find more interesting. A former member of the Air Training Corps described how it was possible, by humming (or rather, "purring"), to make your head vibrate such that, when looking at a spinning propeller, the propeller would seem to stop in mid-air. By increasing or decreasing the intensity of humming/purring, one could then determine in which direction the propeller was rotating.
I haven't tested this out to see if it works, but if any of you do have a chance to test it out, please report back with your results.
Nature - Apr 20, 1968
Comments
Not the Willie Rushton I expected, but I dare say he'd have been up for it.
Posted by Richard Bos on 09/28/24 at 12:32 PM
In the late 1980s or early '90s the post office had small green monochrome CRT monitors at the clerk stations. If I bibble-buzzed my lips at different frequecies I could make the light on the screens seem to wave and wiggle upward or downward like water waves. If they were all in view, they all moved together, synchronized. This didn't work with my green or orange monochrome computer monitors, but did with an old green terminal.
Also I could affect my experience of old-style television static by slightly defocusing my eyes and slowly moving my gaze around the screen. If I went just the right speed it animated a static ghost that moved around just slightly behind the path my eyes went, with the whole rest of the screen in sympathy, like a flock of tiny birds flowing and swirling.
Also I could affect my experience of old-style television static by slightly defocusing my eyes and slowly moving my gaze around the screen. If I went just the right speed it animated a static ghost that moved around just slightly behind the path my eyes went, with the whole rest of the screen in sympathy, like a flock of tiny birds flowing and swirling.
Posted by Marco McClean on 09/29/24 at 04:03 AM
Category: Science | Air Travel and Airlines | 1960s | Eyes and Vision