Slowing time: seeing past the beliveable

In my usual browsing the many fascinating site available on the web, I was drawn to the concept of fast frame rate capture of events. We often say that we will believe things when we see them, however how often to we really see everything that happens around us. To illustrate this point let me share with you a few videos I found online that demonstrate this point.

The first is a rather fun video of a flamethrower vs. a fire extinguisher... and No, no one is getting BBQ'd but its fun nonetheless.

The next is of lightning. I have seen real cool long exposures of lightning that freeze the event and capture the burst in all its glory. This clip shows lightning that was filmed at 9000 frames a second slowed down to a normal frame rate. And even at this speed many of the flashes appear to happen in real time which to the lay person equate to be a very fast flash.

The third and last video to share is of a bouncing water drop. Yes, water really does bounce, but you can only see it if you slow time down like these folks have done.

So there you go. The world is a place so much more intricate than what we can just see. So the next time you are tempted to say that you will believe it when you see it, just remember that there is so much more happening that you are just not capable of seeing and thus it might be better to just believe... or at least try to figure out if technology will give you a boost in seeing the unbelievable.