Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

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Ez556
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Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#1

Post by Ez556 »

So I’ve recently gotten into watches... a little TOO into watches... and needless to say I’ve been looking at them a lot lately. I’ve also started wearing them, often staring at and admiring the one on my wrist. Anyways, I’ve noticed now that many times when I first look at a static picture of a watch, the very first glance, I see the second hand tick once. After that I realize it’s just a picture, but my brain tells me that the second hand is ticking, and swear I see one distinct tick. Anyone else have this phenomenon happen to them?

Bonus fun fact: another little brain trick happens many times when you first look at a watch or clock. You look at the clock and it seems the second hand isn’t moving, that first second seems to take two or three seconds. Then, the clock continues to tick away as normal, one second at a time. That pause the second hand takes when you first look at the clock isn’t anything to do with the clock itself! That pause is actually the time it takes for your brain to process the movement of the hand. You look at the clock and see all the hands, but your brain doesn’t realize it’s moving yet. Once the message reaches your brain, suddenly it says “Oh! This is moving!” and you see the ticks as normal.
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#2

Post by James Y »

Ez556 wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:01 pm
So I’ve recently gotten into watches... a little TOO into watches... and needless to say I’ve been looking at them a lot lately. I’ve also started wearing them, often staring at and admiring the one on my wrist. Anyways, I’ve noticed now that many times when I first look at a static picture of a watch, the very first glance, I see the second hand tick once. After that I realize it’s just a picture, but my brain tells me that the second hand is ticking, and swear I see one distinct tick. Anyone else have this phenomenon happen to them?

Bonus fun fact: another little brain trick happens many times when you first look at a watch or clock. You look at the clock and it seems the second hand isn’t moving, that first second seems to take two or three seconds. Then, the clock continues to tick away as normal, one second at a time. That pause the second hand takes when you first look at the clock isn’t anything to do with the clock itself! That pause is actually the time it takes for your brain to process the movement of the hand. You look at the clock and see all the hands, but your brain doesn’t realize it’s moving yet. Once the message reaches your brain, suddenly it says “Oh! This is moving!” and you see the ticks as normal.
I’ve never had the first example happen, but the thing with the minute hand appearing not to move for a couple seconds before moving as normal has happened to me a couple times.

A bit unrelated, but I find that in low light, I have a hard time seeing the exact time (to the minute) on a wall clock when looking at it directly. But if I loosely focus my eyes right next to the clock, I can see the time to the minute (example: 1:57). I’m a licensed massage therapist, and I periodically check the clock during a session, and the lighting in the room is kept dim during the session so the client can relax. Sometimes, if I try too hard to focus directly in the clock, it feels like my eyes are rapidly “jumping” back and forth, or vibrating. I’m not really sure how to describe it. So in dim light I try not to focus on anything too directly.

Jim
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#3

Post by Bloke »

Ez556 wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:01 pm
I’ve recently gotten into watches
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legOFwhat?
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#4

Post by legOFwhat? »

These are just glitches in the matrix :D

I have noticed how quite often that 9:11 on the clock is viewed, so much so that of the evenings my kids will call it out. My late grandfather use to say every time he heard the phone it was ringing :)
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#5

Post by Larry_Mott »

Can't say i have experienced any of the "magic" described in original post. On the other hand i have lost count of how many times people have asked me "what's the time" after noticing i glanced at my watch and i have to check again :) It's like the glance is more of a tic than a genuine interest in knowing the actual time..
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#6

Post by James Y »

legOFwhat? wrote:
Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:43 am
These are just glitches in the matrix :D

I have noticed how quite often that 9:11 on the clock is viewed, so much so that of the evenings my kids will call it out. My late grandfather use to say every time he heard the phone it was ringing :)
I often glance at digital clocks at 3:33.

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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#7

Post by cbrstar »

I've experienced the second quite a few times it's called chronostasis. I've also experienced it when shooting, and when I had a accident and everything went slo mo just like the movies.
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#8

Post by standy99 »

Ez556 wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:01 pm
So I’ve recently gotten into watches... a little TOO into watches... and needless to say I’ve been looking at them a lot lately.
Good place to look ( not just Omega )

https://omegaforums.net/threads/wruw-to ... /page-6818
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#9

Post by curlyhairedboy »

James Y wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:35 pm
Ez556 wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:01 pm
So I’ve recently gotten into watches... a little TOO into watches... and needless to say I’ve been looking at them a lot lately. I’ve also started wearing them, often staring at and admiring the one on my wrist. Anyways, I’ve noticed now that many times when I first look at a static picture of a watch, the very first glance, I see the second hand tick once. After that I realize it’s just a picture, but my brain tells me that the second hand is ticking, and swear I see one distinct tick. Anyone else have this phenomenon happen to them?

Bonus fun fact: another little brain trick happens many times when you first look at a watch or clock. You look at the clock and it seems the second hand isn’t moving, that first second seems to take two or three seconds. Then, the clock continues to tick away as normal, one second at a time. That pause the second hand takes when you first look at the clock isn’t anything to do with the clock itself! That pause is actually the time it takes for your brain to process the movement of the hand. You look at the clock and see all the hands, but your brain doesn’t realize it’s moving yet. Once the message reaches your brain, suddenly it says “Oh! This is moving!” and you see the ticks as normal.
I’ve never had the first example happen, but the thing with the minute hand appearing not to move for a couple seconds before moving as normal has happened to me a couple times.

A bit unrelated, but I find that in low light, I have a hard time seeing the exact time (to the minute) on a wall clock when looking at it directly. But if I loosely focus my eyes right next to the clock, I can see the time to the minute (example: 1:57). I’m a licensed massage therapist, and I periodically check the clock during a session, and the lighting in the room is kept dim during the session so the client can relax. Sometimes, if I try too hard to focus directly in the clock, it feels like my eyes are rapidly “jumping” back and forth, or vibrating. I’m not really sure how to describe it. So in dim light I try not to focus on anything too directly.

Jim
this is definitely related to the relative distribution of rods and cone cells in your eye! The cones are responsible for our best focus and normal well lit vision, and they're heavily clustered near the center of your vision. Away from the center are the rods, and they are great for detecting motion and are much better at night vision.

Your technique of looking away from the clock to better read the time is you using the rod cells to see better in the dark!

Here's a link with more information :

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... dcone.html
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Re: Anyone else’s brain trick them like this?

#10

Post by James Y »

curlyhairedboy wrote:
Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:16 am
James Y wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:35 pm
Ez556 wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:01 pm
So I’ve recently gotten into watches... a little TOO into watches... and needless to say I’ve been looking at them a lot lately. I’ve also started wearing them, often staring at and admiring the one on my wrist. Anyways, I’ve noticed now that many times when I first look at a static picture of a watch, the very first glance, I see the second hand tick once. After that I realize it’s just a picture, but my brain tells me that the second hand is ticking, and swear I see one distinct tick. Anyone else have this phenomenon happen to them?

Bonus fun fact: another little brain trick happens many times when you first look at a watch or clock. You look at the clock and it seems the second hand isn’t moving, that first second seems to take two or three seconds. Then, the clock continues to tick away as normal, one second at a time. That pause the second hand takes when you first look at the clock isn’t anything to do with the clock itself! That pause is actually the time it takes for your brain to process the movement of the hand. You look at the clock and see all the hands, but your brain doesn’t realize it’s moving yet. Once the message reaches your brain, suddenly it says “Oh! This is moving!” and you see the ticks as normal.
I’ve never had the first example happen, but the thing with the minute hand appearing not to move for a couple seconds before moving as normal has happened to me a couple times.

A bit unrelated, but I find that in low light, I have a hard time seeing the exact time (to the minute) on a wall clock when looking at it directly. But if I loosely focus my eyes right next to the clock, I can see the time to the minute (example: 1:57). I’m a licensed massage therapist, and I periodically check the clock during a session, and the lighting in the room is kept dim during the session so the client can relax. Sometimes, if I try too hard to focus directly in the clock, it feels like my eyes are rapidly “jumping” back and forth, or vibrating. I’m not really sure how to describe it. So in dim light I try not to focus on anything too directly.

Jim
this is definitely related to the relative distribution of rods and cone cells in your eye! The cones are responsible for our best focus and normal well lit vision, and they're heavily clustered near the center of your vision. Away from the center are the rods, and they are great for detecting motion and are much better at night vision.

Your technique of looking away from the clock to better read the time is you using the rod cells to see better in the dark!

Here's a link with more information :

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... dcone.html

Thank you!

Jim
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