I was playing with my phone's flashlight (white) in a dark room, Just moving it around quickly when I noticed that I could see thin stripes of purple in the same shape as my hand moved, they didn't disappear instantly rather I could see them like a net of thin purple strips, but vanished when I looked at them for more than 2 seconds. I don't understand why it happened and was curious.
Why do I see purple stripes when moving a small source of light (flashlight) quickly in a dark room?
1 Answer
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This phenomenon is called afterimage and happens because of adaptations of the photoreceptors in the retina of your eye to the stimulation by light and adaptations by your neurons in the visual processing in your brain.
