MathLapse - Propeller Mystery
films
Licence
Crédits
- Video and animation
- Music
- Sound effects
Taking pictures of spacetime - what could go wrong?
Taking photographs of propellers in action has always been a source of genuine surprise. Just have a look at http://goo.gl/GeVJOp, http://goo.gl/IPeMss, http://goo.gl/tHkSoa and http://goo.gl/vQuc7Q. The distortions of the propellers are caused by the rolling shutter effect of some digital cameras - i. e. they do not capture a picture at once, but line-by-line.
This short film demonstrates patterns generated at specific speeds of a propeller and a rolling shutter. Enjoy them!
But, what does it have to do with spacetime?
In Physics, spacetime is the concept of having space and time mingled into a single entity - the spacetime continuum. A traditional photo shows space captured at one, fixed moment in time. A rolling shutter picture, however, captures different fragments of space at different fragments of time and interweaves them into a single spacetime image.
Could you think of another photographic effect when capturing spacetime?
(hint: ɹnlq uoᴉʇoɯ)