What is Persistence of Vision?

Persistence of vision is a row of images/photos which are flicked or moved in a certain i.e. spinning which makes the image look as if they're moving. The pictures need to be taken really quickly so the character/object doesn't jump and the character/object must only move in little sections the the image doesn't jump and mess the rest of the sequence up. 

A Zoetrope is a chinese spinning device with little slits placed around the cylinder, you then place an image within the Zoetrope and spin it whilst looking through the slits; you should see the image moving in a certain way repeating itself.