persistence of vision

noun

1. the retention of a visual image for a short period of time after the removal of the stimulus that produced it: the phenomenon that produces the illusion of movement when viewing motion pictures.

Word History and Origins

Origin of persistence of vision¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

“Empire of Light” turns out to be the second movie this season in which a character delivers a tutorial on the concept of persistence of vision — the trick of the eye that allows movies to work their magic, whereby a series of single frames is perceived to be one continuous image.

From Washington Post

A series of 19 photographs documenting the construction of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 Exposition exemplifies the “persistence of vision” that will allow human eyes to accept 24 frames per second as continuous motion, just as the dots that make up Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting of the unfinished tower bear an uncanny resemblance to the grain texture of celluloid and, further down the road, digital pixels.

From Washington Post

To fill the gap, we get alternating snippets of monologues that must be jury-rigged into drama by the audience’s persistence of vision, which the playwright assists by linking them thematically.

From New York Times

“I hope that for people with creative ambitions, the lesson that comes out is to stay true to your beliefs, because really it’s about the persistence of vision,” he said.

From New York Times

Slightly reminiscent of John Varley’s “The Persistence of Vision,” Madeline Ashby’s “Patriotic Canadians Will Not Hoard Food!” zeros in on an idyllic boutique farm dogged by corporate suitors who want to buy the place and harassment from locals with different political views — but it’s also a love story.

From Washington Post