Jumping numbers

So my neck has been hurting a lot lately and I've been using this vibrating massage pillow to loosen it up. I took the vibrator out of the pillow(much stronger vibrations this way) and I was walking around my house earlier holding this thing to my neck and I noticed that if I look at a digital clock the numbers apear to be moving around. The amount they move varies from clock to clock, the bigger numbers seem to move more. It's quite a strange sight. The body of the clock and everything around it apear normal while the numbers jump around. Does anyone have a clue as to why this happens?

In order to get this to work you have to press something that vibrates firmly onto your neck or head. If you just hold it lightly it won't work, and other parts of the body don't work. Also, I've only tried this with LCD clocks with red numbers.

the vibrator is making your eyes vibrate too creating the jumping numbers?

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Originally Posted by grasshoppa

the vibrator is making your eyes vibrate too creating the jumping numbers?

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No, because then everything would vibrate. Only the numbers on digital clocks move, and the move quite a bit. It might have something to do with color or light but I really don't know.

Yea I know what you mean happens to me a lot, Sometimes when the lights are off and I kinda walk on my heels the same effect happens as you. But I don't know why this happens. I wish I could know why it happens.

Happens to me while looking at a television set. You can try that as well.

I suspect that the red numbers are actually LED's that flash so fast that you can't detect it. I thought of this when I noticed LED screens seem to stretch the image when looking from one side of it to another. I have an alarm clock with green numbers, and that happens on occasion.

Also, there are devices to "write" words in midair. It only uses a single bar of LED's. You hold a handle, spin the device (like a helicopter...), and when you go fast enough, you can see a word clearly. Yet, when this device is stationary, it is really difficult to tell if an LED is flashing or not.

What I think is happening is that your brain is fixing what it perceives as stationary, solid objects into a single image, so it does not move. The LED's, on the other hand, flash while the vibrator is in mid-stroke (or rotation... whatever.) just as the brain is getting a new image, so the number appears to move.

I am no engineer or doctor, but this might be how it actually works...