Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Science
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Psychology, Experimental
Another effective variation is to use rods alike in color with one or
the other of the sectors. Here it is clear that when the rod hides the
oppositely-colored sector, the deduction of that color is replaced
(not by black, as happens if the rod is black) but by the very color
which is already characteristic of that band. But when the rod hides
the sector of its own color, the deduction is replaced by the very
same color. Thus, bands like colored with the rod gain in depth of
tone, while the other pure-color bands present simply the
fusion-color.
IX. A STROBOSCOPE WHICH DEPENDS ON THE SAME PRINCIPLE.
If one produce the illusion by using for rod, not the pendulum of a
metronome, but a black cardboard sector on a second color-mixer placed
in front of the first and rotating concentrically with it, that is,
with the color-disc, one will observe with the higher speeds of the
rod which are now obtainable several further phenomena, all of which
follow simply from the geometrical relations of disc and rod (now a
rotating sector), as discussed above. The color-mixer in front, which
bears the sector (let it still be called a 'rod'), should rotate by
hand and independently of the disc behind, whose two sectors are to
give the bands. The sectors of the disc should now be equal, and the
rod needs to be broader than before, say 50° or 60°, since it is to
revolve very rapidly.
First, let the rod and disc rotate in the same direction, the disc at
its former rate, while the rod begins slowly and moves faster and
faster. At first there is a confused appearance of vague, radial
shadows shuffling to and fro. This is because the rod is broad and
moves slowly (cf. p. 196, paragraph II).
As the velocity of the rod increases, a moment will come when the
confusing shadows will resolve themselves into four (sometimes five)
radial bands of one color with four of the other color and the
appropriate transition-bands between them. The bands of either color
are symmetrically disposed over the disc, that is, they lie at right
angles to one another (if there are five bands they lie at angles of
72°, etc.). But this entire system of bands, instead of lying
motionless over the disc as did the systems hitherto described, itself
rotates rapidly in the opposite direction from disc to rod. As the rod
rotates forward yet faster, no change is seen except that the system
of bands moves backward more and more slowly. Thus, if one rotate the
rod with one's own hand, one has the feeling that the backward
movement of the bands is an inverse function of the increase in
velocity of the rod. And, indeed, as this velocity still increases,
the bands gradually come to rest, although both the disc and the rod
are rotating rapidly.
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