~ The Falling Water Story ~
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It was a strange sight: a man, standing before a waterfall, watching the falling water and tilting his head from side to side.
Drawing closer, I saw he was rapidly moving the fingers of his right hand up and down in front of his face.
For several minutes, he continued silently flicking his fingers.
Then he turned and asked, “Can you do it? Can you see the individual drops?”
Copying him, I spread my fingers and moved them up and down before my eyes.
Suddenly, the fountain’s stream seemed to freeze into individual droplets.
For some time, the two of us stood there perfecting our strobe technique.
Then, as the man turned to leave, he looked me in the eye and said,
“Never forget that science is just that kind of exploring and fun.”
The man at the waterfall was Albert Einstein. (Rowe, 1995)
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Things appear to us as real, but are distorted according to our biased perception.
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"Curiosity is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein
Harold "Doc" Edgerton, MIT
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Learn more: Father of Strobe Photography
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Strobe Photography Image Gallery
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This photograph shows a falling weight captured on film by a strobe light which is flashing thirty times per second.
You can clearly see that the distance traveled by the falling weight in each successive interval is increasing.
Your eye will probably even tell you that it is increasing at a regular rate,
although you cannot quantitatively determine what the rate is.
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