A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
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flicker fusion
The speed at which an animal’s visual system processes light — the threshold at which a flickering light appears continuous. A fly’s flicker fusion rate is far higher than ours, meaning it sees the world in something like slow motion. A leatherback turtle’s is higher than expected. The rate determines whether a creature perceives a fluorescent bulb as steady light or a maddening strobe.
Etymology
“Flicker” from Old English “flicorian” (to flutter); “fusion” from Latin “fusio,” from “fundere” (to pour, melt). Term coined in early 20th-century psychophysics research on the critical flicker fusion threshold.