Thaumatrope

The process of making the thaumatrope

I followed this template as a guide of making my thaumatrope.

I began by using a compass to create two circles of the size. Then I drew a line to create centre points for both of my circles. After I measured the distance between the two circles with a ruler and marked the halfway point between the two circles. Then, I measured a cm distance on both sides of the line and connected both sides to the circle. After, I measured the distance between the halfway point to one circle in which I then marked the middle of the two points with a dot and did the same process with the other circle. The distance was then measured the same for the other sides of the two circles to create a total of four tabs. After, I cut the outline out using scissors and folded the middle tab which is represented with a dotted line on the picture above, and folded the tab in half. I drew on both the circles, one circle with the jar upright, and another circle with a butterfly facing downwards. I did this because, if they butterfly was facing upwards when the thaumatrope was in action, the butterfly would be seen to be facing the wrong direction. Then I glued the thaumatrope together, and punched holes through the marked dots were on the tabs. Finally I slotted string through both the holes and made a knot at the end of both the strings, and this created a thaumatrope which spun, creating an image of a butterfly in a jar.

Persistence of Vision

The thaumatrope demonstrates persistence of vision as it creates an effect of the butterfly being contained in a jar in a smooth action. The action is smooth meaning that to the eye, it is unnoticed that both the images are separate from one another, but to the eye are seen as though they are together when spun.