The original discussion was whether the human eye sees more than 24 frames per second, and the answer is that it absolutely does. Your context about where the 24fps standard came from is correct, but in the context of the broader discussion, it’s relevant to point out that throughout the 20th century, nobody ever watched those films on displays that refreshed 24 times per second.
Until the the telecine allowed for television broadcast of film in the 1950s, projectors were the ONLY way to view motion picture film, hence their relevance to the discussion. In the 1800s, there were single-bladed projector shutters that flashed the image once per frame and the flickering was highly noticeable and distracting, which is how movies got the nickname “flicks.” The multi-bladed projector shutters give the screen an effective refresh rate of 48-72 Hz, despite the image only changing at 24 Hz. Even when films started being broadcast on TV via telecine, TVs in the NTSC region were operating at 60 visual field scans per second, meaning that 24fps film frames had to be shown on an alternating 3-2 repeating pattern to fit the 60Hz scans.
The original discussion was whether the human eye sees more than 24 frames per second, and the answer is that it absolutely does. Your context about where the 24fps standard came from is correct, but in the context of the broader discussion, it’s relevant to point out that throughout the 20th century, nobody ever watched those films on displays that refreshed 24 times per second.
Until the the telecine allowed for television broadcast of film in the 1950s, projectors were the ONLY way to view motion picture film, hence their relevance to the discussion. In the 1800s, there were single-bladed projector shutters that flashed the image once per frame and the flickering was highly noticeable and distracting, which is how movies got the nickname “flicks.” The multi-bladed projector shutters give the screen an effective refresh rate of 48-72 Hz, despite the image only changing at 24 Hz. Even when films started being broadcast on TV via telecine, TVs in the NTSC region were operating at 60 visual field scans per second, meaning that 24fps film frames had to be shown on an alternating 3-2 repeating pattern to fit the 60Hz scans.