MAKE A MOVIE WHEEL (phenakistiscope)

Shortcut to the instructions, click here.
Shortcut to the movie wheel pattern, click here

It's the ultimate optical illusion

They say that, "Seeing is believing." But however real the worlds that movies and videos create, they will always be a clever optical illusions."Animation" means "brought to life," and you can rediscover the excitement the pioneers of animation felt as they breathed life into pictures

It takes little more than half an hour to make a movie wheel out of a recycled cereal box. You could spend a lifetime watching TV without ever understanding how our eyes can see still images seem to come alive. But when you build and use a movie wheel, you can't help but start to grapple with "persistence of vision," the principle that allows our brain to see progressions of still images as moving.

Click here for the instructions for making your own movie wheel.

Click here for instructions for an even simpler "persistence of vision" toy, a Thaumatrope (not in instructional video format yet).

Click here for a start in making your own movie wheel patterns and also good links with examples of patterns .

Here are some pictures from North Carolinian Louise Omoto Kessel--homesteader, homeschool mom and camp organizer showing the camp museum of varitions and some kids using them without the mirror.

Click here for a streaming video I created about a behind-the-scenes look at a TV production crew making a PBS TV program.

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