1 November 2016

thaumatrope

[thaw-muh-trohp]

noun

1. a card with different pictures on opposite sides, as a horse on one side and a rider on the other, which appear as if combined when the card is twirled rapidly, thus illustrating the persistence of visual impressions.

Origin of thaumatrope

1820-1830; thauma(to)- + -trope

Related forms

thaumatropical [thaw-muh-trop-i-kuh l], adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for thaumatrope

Historical Examples

These memories lie in confusion, unformed and undefined, like pictures in a thaumatrope.
The Son of a Servant
August Strindberg

The thaumatrope, then, did nothing more than illustrate the power of the eye to weld together a couple of alternating impressions.
The Romance of Modern Invention
Archibald Williams

Why do the figures upon the ” thaumatrope ” appear to dance, when they are made to revolve before a mirror?
The Reason Why
Anonymous

Anagram

tempura oath
rotate a hump
a math troupe
heat map tour

Today’s quote

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.

– Rabindranath Tagore

On this day

1 – 2 November – Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated around the world, but particularly in Mexico, where it is a public holiday. On this day people pray for loved ones who have died. Coincides with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day (originally introduced in 609AD) and All Souls’ Day.

1 November 1952 – The U.S. detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1 November 1993 – The European Union formally established as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, which had been ratified by 12 nations in February 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.