When you shake a single light in your hand what causes it to look like a line?

Question

When you shake a single light in your hand what causes it to look like a line?

Answer 1

ya it is because your brain retains the things it sees for a while

this is how flipbooks work

Answer 2

Your eye has a characturistic  called persistence of vision which is resulting from the chemical response to the optical nerves of the eye.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence... for more info..

Answer 3

Your brain can only interpret or distinguish a certain amount of images in any given time.....when an object is moving faster than the rate at which the brain can interpret or distinguish it retains the image longer than it is staying in the same position so the light appears to be a line , but only in your head not in reality.