08 Stroboscopic

The strobe light’s ability to create optical illusions enables people to see images that occur too fast for the human eye to discern.

You can see the strobe in action in Doc’s machine he termed the “piddler, ” in which two water streams flow downward and intersect above a catch basin. When a strobe light is used to illuminate the water streams, you can see the water stream as individual “droplets” of water. By adjusting the frequency of the strobe light, you can make the droplets appear to be stationary in midair. In addition, by further changing the frequency of the strobe light, you can make the stream of water droplets appear to flow upwards as well!