I’ve noticed that when playing an LP, I can still read the label, even while it’s spinning around. This, to me, is totally astounding, to be able to decipher little patterns of light and dark, while they’re in constant circular motion. What exactly goes on in the brain, to enable us to do this?
Well, I don’t have a record player to try it with, but I suppose it would be the same mechanism that allows me to pick out things on the side of the highway (do you know those little bumps they impress on the shoulder with the bulldozer treads? One of those bumps, for example) and track them as I whiz by at 75 mph. I can lock onto one of those little bumps, one of the posts of a guardrail, a sign, etc. It’s surprisingly easy to lock onto and track a moving object once you know how to do it (mainly, locking on the specific speed of eye movement you need).
BTW, have you ever thought about playing baseball?
I wonder if it is related to the mechanism that allows people (me, at least) to watch TV upside down or at a 90-degree angle, with the picture seeming normal? I noticed this when I was about 7 years old, and it pissed me off that the upside-down picture didn’t look particularly upside-down.
Yes, but there has to be some additional kind of compensation to read something that’s not just moving or upside down, but spinning.
I can read 33-1/3s and 45s; wish I had a turntable for 78s.