Persistence of Vision

What is Persistence of Vision?

Persistence of Vision is a theory which states that the human eye always maintains images for a fraction of a second, so it refers to the fact what we are currently seeing at the moment is a mixture between with what was going on a fraction of a second ago. It is an illusion of motion which causes us not to notice any fractional skips between the images we see due the persistence which is sustained before us to make the motion seem smooth.

References:

http://www.mediacollege.com/glossary/p/persistence-of-vision.html

http://animation.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/g/pervision_def.htm