Science

big wheels keep on turning

why do car wheels appear to be spinning anti-clockwise when the car is moving forward?

pesama Thurs 26/06/08 09:29

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R1Geezer
Thurs 26/06/08
09:54

I presume you mean when wathcing on film/TV

a moving picture is a series of still pictures, when a rotating wheel is snapped it is in position A now if the shutter speed is slightly faster than the wheel rotation then position A will be a little behind each time and will look like it's rotating backwards. This also happens when you see a plane propeller start, initially it goes forward but when it gets up to speed it appears to go backwards for the reasons above.

Panic Button
Thurs 26/06/08
09:56

The wheels on the right spin clockwise, while those on the left spin anti-clockwise.

However R1 Geezer explains the appearance well

Gerb
Thurs 26/06/08
14:58

R1Geezeer's answer is right, but if you're referring to real life then I know a few drug dealers with tinted windowed 4x4s who have hub-cabs that actually rotate in reverse when the car is moving forward. Apparantly it looks cool.

chakka35
Thurs 26/06/08
17:18

Sorry, Panic Button, but I don't understand your post. On the right and left of what?

Panic Button
Thurs 26/06/08
22:57

The car of course!

wildwood
Thurs 26/06/08
23:19

I understand your post perfectly panic button and you are ofcourse correct.

I do think however that the Geezer's presumption is on the button and has explained the phenomena very adequately.

Tim123
Fri 27/06/08
14:17

The correct term for this is Temporal Aliasing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_aliasing

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