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1582. Why does combining red, green, and blue light create
is
white light? Is this just an accepted fact? DM, Punta Gorda,
Florida
Our eyes sense color by measuring the relative brightnesses of the red, green,
and blue portions of the light spectrum. When all three portions of the spectrum
are present in the proper amounts, we perceive white.
The color sensing cells in our eyes are known as cone cells and they can detect
only three different bands of color. One type of cone cell is sensitive to light in
the red portion of the spectrum, the second type is sensitive to the green portion
of the spectrum, and the third type is sensitive to the blue portion of the
spectrum.
Their sensitivities overlap somewhat, so light in the yellow and orange portions
of the spectrum simultaneously affects both the red sensitive cone cells and the
green sensitive ones. Our brains interpret color according to which of three cone
cells are being stimulated and to what extent. When both our red sensors and our
green sensors are being stimulated, we perceive yellow or orange.
That scheme for sensing color is simple and elegant, and it allows us to
appreciate many of the subtle color variations in our world. But it means that we
can't distinguish between certain groups of lights. For example, we can't
distinguish between (1) true yellow light and (2) a carefully adjusted mixture of
true red plus true green. Both stimulate our red and green sensors just enough to
make us perceive yellow. Those groups of lights look exactly the same to us.
Similarly, we can't distinguish between (3) the full spectrum of sunlight and (4)
a carefully adjusted mixture of true red, true green, and true blue. Those two

groups stimulate all three types of cone cells and make us perceive white. They
look identical to us.
That the primary colors of light are red, green, and blue is the result of our
human physiology and the fact that our eyes divide the spectrum of light into
those three color regions. If our eyes were different, the primary colors of light
would be different, too.
Many things in our technological world exploit mixtures of those three primary
colors to make us see every possible color. Computer monitors, televisions,
photographs, and color printing all make us see what they want us to see without
actually reproducing the full light spectrum of the original. For example, if you
used a light spectrum analyzer to study a flower and a photograph of that flower,
you'd discover that their light spectra are different. Those spectra stimulate our
eyes the same way, but the details of the spectra are different. We can't tell them
apart.

ShareT
1581. Does the power consumption drop when a four-tube
his
fluorescent fixture has either two tubes missing or two tubes that
are burned out. If there is a drop in consumption, how significant
is it? Is it cost effective to remove two tubes if you don't need the
lumens of four tubes? M, Connecticut
Most four-tube fluorescent fixtures are effectively two separate two-tube units.
They share the same ballast, but otherwise each pair of tubes is independent of
the other. Removing one of those pairs from the fixture will save nearly half the
energy and expense, and is a good idea if you don't need the extra illumination.
The two tubes within a pair operate in series: current flowing as a discharge
through the gas in one tube also flows through the gas in the other tube. That's
why they both go out simultaneously. Only one of them is actually dead, but
since the dead one has lost its ability to sustain a discharge, it can't pass any
current on to its partner. Replacing the dead tube is usually enough to get the
pair working again, at least for while.
Leaving dead tubes in a fixture isn't the same as removing unnecessary tubes.
Tubes often die slow, lingering deaths during which they sustain weak or
flickering discharges that consume some energy without providing much light.
Also, most fluorescent fixtures heat the electrodes at the ends of the tubes to
start the discharge. During startup, the ballast runs an electric current through
each electrode (hence the two metal contacts at each end of the tube) and the
heated electrodes introduces electric charges into the gas so the discharge can
start.
That heating current is only necessary during starting, but if the discharge never
starts then the ballast may continue to heat the electrodes for days, weeks, or
years. If you look at the ends of a tube that fails to start, you may see the
electrodes glowing red hot. Because of that heater current, leaving a failed
fluorescent tube in a fixture can be waste of energy and money. Be careful
removing those tubes from the fixturealthough they produce no light, they can

still be hot at their ends.

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1578. I have been told, that incandescent light bulbs are being
is
phased out to be replaced by fluorescent bulbs that use less
energy. This will happen I think next year? Is that true? CD,
Abilene, Texas
Incandescent lightbulbs will be phased out beginning with 100-watt bulbs in
2012 and ending with 40-watt bulbs in 2014. The reason for this phase out is
simple: incandescent lightbulbs are horribly energy inefficient.
Light is a form of energy, so you can compare the visible light energy emitted by
any lamp to the energy that lamp consumes. According to that comparison, an
incandescent lightbulb is roughly 5% efficienta 100-watt incandescent bulb
emits about 5 watts of visible light. In contrast, a fluorescent lamp is typically
about 20% energy efficienta 25-watt fluorescent lamp emits about 5 watts of
visible light.

Another way to compare incandescent and fluorescent lamps is via their lumens
per watt. The lumen is a standard unit of usable illumination and it incorporates
factors such as how sensitive our eyes are to various colors of light. If you
divide a light source's light output in lumens by its power input in watts, you'll
obtain its lumens per watt.
For the incandescent lightbulb appearing at the left of the photograph, that
calculation yields 16.9 lumens/watt. For the "long life" bulb at the center of the
photograph, it give only 15.3 lumens/watt. And for the color-improved bulb on
the right of the photograph, the value is only 12.6 lumens/watt. Our
grandchildren will look at this photograph of long forgotten incandescent bulbs
and be amazed that we could squander so much energy on lighting.
The fluorescent lamp in the other photograph is far more efficient. It produces
more useful illumination than any of the three incandescent bulbs, yet it
consumes just over a quarter as much power. Dividing its light out in lumens by
its power consumption in watts yields 64.6 lumens/watts. It is 4 times as energy
efficient as the best of the incandescent lightbulbs. Some fluorescent lamps are
even more efficient than that.
Another feature to compare is life expectancy. Even the so-called "long life"
incandescent predicts a 1500 hour life, which is only 15% of the predicted life
for the fluorescent lamp (10,000 hours). Although the fluorescent costs more, it
quickly pays for itself in energy use and less frequent replacement. You should
recycle a fluorescent lamp because it does contain a tiny amount of mercury, but
overall it's a much more environmentally friendly light source.

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1559. Do ballasts of fluorescent light fixtures produce a high
is
voltage arc that ionizes gases in the tube during start up? If so
what sort of voltages are we talking about? SC, Australia
A traditional fluorescent lamp needs a ballast to limit the current flowing
through its gas discharge. That's because gas discharges have strange electrical
characteristics, most notably a regime of "negative" electrical resistance: the
voltage drop across the discharge actually decreases as the current in the
discharge increases. If you connect a gas discharge lamp to a voltage source

without anything to limit the current and start the discharge, the current flowing
through the lamp will rise essentially without limit and the lamp will quickly
destroy itself. As a kid, I blew up several small neon lamps by connecting them
directly to the power line without any current limiter. That was not a clever or
safe idea, so don't try it!
The standard current limiter for fluorescent lamps and other discharge lamps
that are powered from 60-cycle (or 50-cycle) alternating current has been an
electromagnetic coil known as a ballast. When that coil is in series with the
discharge, the coil's self-inductance limits how quickly the current flowing
through the lamp can rise and therefore how much power the lamp can consume
before the alternating current reverses direction. The discharge winks on and off
with each current reversal and never draws more current than it can tolerate.
Unfortunately, the lamp's light also winks on and off and some people can see
that flicker, especially with their peripheral vision.
Actually, the ballast usually has another job to do in a traditional fluorescent
lamp: it acts as a transformer to provide the current needed to heat the electrode
filaments at the ends of the lamp. Heating those electrodes helps drive electrons
out of the metal and into the lamp's gas so that the gas becomes electrically
conducting. In total then, the ballast receives alternating current electric power
from the power line and prepares it so that all the lamp filaments are heated
properly and a limited current flows through the lamp from one electrode to the
other.
In modern fluorescent lamps with heated electrodes, however, the role of the
ballast has been usurped by a more sophisticated electronic power conditioning
device. That device converts 60-cycle alternating current electric power into a
series of electrical energy pulses, typically at about 40,000 pulses per second,
and delivers them to the lamp. The lamp's flicker is almost undetectable because
it is so fast and the limited energy in each pulse prevents the discharge from
consuming too much power. It's a much better system. Compact fluorescent
lamps use it exclusively.
So where might high voltage fit into this story? Well, there are some fluorescent
lamps that don't heat their electrodes with filaments. They rely on the discharge
itself to drive electrons out of the electrodes and into the gas to sustain the
discharge. But that begs the question: "how does such a lamp start its
discharge?" It uses high voltage. Because of cosmic rays and natural
radioactivity, gases always have some electric charges in them: ions and
electrons. When the voltage difference between the two ends of the lamp
becomes very large, the electric field in the lamp propels those naturally
occurring ions and electrons into the constituents of the lamp violently enough
to start the lamp's discharge. The voltages needed to start these "cold cathode"
lamps are typically in the low thousands of volts. For example, the cold cathode
fluorescent lamps used in laptop computer displays start at about 2000 volts and
then operate at much lower voltages.

ShareTh
1495. Why do things such as sneakers, T-shirts, and nailpolish
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change color in the sun? The only explanations I've found
simple state that the molecules get excited in the sun.
Sunlight consists not only of light across the entire visible spectrum, but of

invisible infrared and ultraviolet lights as well. The latter is probably what is
causing the color-changing effects you mention.
Ultraviolet light is high-energy light, meaning that whenever it is emitted or
absorbed, the amount of energy involved in the process is relatively large.
Although light travels through space as waves, it is emitted and absorbed as
particles known as photons. The energy in a photon of ultraviolet light is larger
than in a photon of visible light and that leads to interesting effects.
First, some molecules can't tolerate the energy in an ultraviolet photon. When
these molecules absorb such an energetic photon, their electrons rearrange so
dramatically that the entire molecule changes its structure forever. Among the
organic molecules that are most vulnerable to these ultraviolet-light-induced
chemical rearrangements are the molecules that are responsible for colors. The
same electronic structural characteristics that make these organic molecules
colorful also make them fragile and susceptible to ultraviolet damage. As a
result, they tend to bleach white in the sun.
Second, some molecules can tolerate high-energy photons by reemitting part of
the photon's energy as new light. Such molecules absorb ultraviolet or other
high-energy photons and use that energy to emit blue, green, or even red
photons. The leftover energy is converted into thermal energy. These fluorescent
molecules are the basis for the "neon" colors that are so popular on swimwear, in
colored markers, and on poster boards. When you expose something dyed with
fluorescent molecules to sunlight, the dye molecules absorbs the invisible
ultraviolet light and then emit brilliant visible light.

ShareTh
1476. What everyday household chemicals (cleaners, paints,
is
detergents, etc.) contain large enough amounts of phosphor to
glow under black light?
Fluorescent paints and many laundry detergents contain fluorescent chemicalschemicals that absorb ultraviolet light and use its energy to produce visible light.
Fluorescent paints are designed to do exactly that, so they certainly contain
enough "phosphor" for that purpose. Detergents have fluorescent dyes or
"brighteners" added because it helps to make fabrics appear whiter. Aging fabric
appears yellowish because it absorbs some blue light. To replace the missing
blue light, the brighteners absorb invisible ultraviolet and use its energy to emit
blue light.

ShareTh
1462. Why does a shave that looks great under incandescent
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light look terrible under fluorescent light? And, for a woman,
what light is best for putting on makeup? JE
Illumination matters because your skin only reflects light to which it's exposed.
When you step into a room illuminated only by red light your skin appears red,
not because it's truly red but because there is only red light to reflect.
Ordinary incandescent bulbs produce a thermal spectrum of light with a "color
temperature" of about 2800 C. A thermal light spectrum is a broad, featureless
mixture of colors that peaks at a particular wavelength that's determined only by
the temperature of the object emitting it. Since the bulb's color temperature is
much cooler than that of the sun's (5800 C), the bulb appears much redder than

the sun and emits relatively little blue light. A fluorescent lamp, however,
synthesizes its light spectrum from the emissions of various fluorescent
phosphors. Its light spectrum is broad but structured and depends on the lamp's
phosphor mixture. The four most important phosphor mixtures are cool white,
deluxe cool white, warm white, and deluxe warm white. These mixtures all
produce more blue than an incandescent bulb, but the warm white and
particularly the deluxe warm white tone down the blue emission to give a richer,
warmer glow at the expense of a little energy efficiency. Cool white fluorescents
are closer to natural sunlight than either warm white fluorescents or
incandescent bulbs.
To answer your question about shaves: without blue light in the illumination, it's
not that easy to distinguish beard from skin. Since incandescent illumination is
lacking in blue light, a shave looks good even when it isn't. But in bright
fluorescent lighting, beard and skin appear sharply different and it's easy to see
spots shaving has missed. As for makeup illumination, it's important to apply
makeup in the light in which it will be worn. Blue-poor incandescent lighting
downplays blue colors so it's easy to overapply them. When the lighting then
shifts to blue-rich fluorescents, the blue makeup will look heavy handed. Some
makeup mirrors provide both kinds of illumination so that these kinds of
mistakes can be avoided.

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1391. I am interested in experimenting with colored flames,
is
maybe by adding a substance to the flame. Please tell me how to
do it and with what kind of substances. M
You can produce colored flames by adding various metal salts to the burning
materials. That's what's done in fireworks. These metal salts decompose when
heated so that individual metal atoms are present in the hot flame. Thermal
energy in the flame then excites those atoms so that their electrons shift among
the allowed orbits or "orbitals" and this shifting can lead to the emission of
particles of light or "photons". Since the orbitals themselves vary according to
which chemical element is involved, the emitted photons have specific
wavelengths and colors that are characteristic of that element.
To obtain a wide variety of colors, you'll need a wide variety of metal salts.
Sodium salts, including common table salt, will give you yellow lightthe same
light that's produced by sodium vapor lamps. Potassium salts yield purple,
copper and barium salts yield green, strontium salts yield red, and so on. The
classic way to produce a colored flame is to dip a platinum wire into a metal salt
solution and to hold the wire in the flame. Since platinum is expensive, you can
do the same trick with a piece of steel wire. The only problem is that the steel
wire will burn eventually.

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1390. Why do only certain orbitals exist in an atom?
Because the electrons in an atom move about as waves, they can follow only
certain allowed orbits that we call orbitals. This limitation is equivalent to the
case of a violin stringit can only vibrate at certain frequencies. If you try to
make a violin string vibrate at the wrong frequency, it won't do it. That's because

the string vibrates in a wave-like manner and only certain waves fit properly
along the strong. Similarly, the electron in an atom "vibrates" in a wave-like
manner and only certain waves fit properly around the nucleus.

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1389. When an electron hits a neon atom, does it transfer its
energy to the atom and lose its own forever?

Most of the collisions between an electron and a neon atom are completely
elasticthe electron bounces perfectly from the neon atom and retains
essentially all of its kinetic energy. But occasionally the electron induces a
structural change in the neon atom and transfers some of its energy to the neon
atom. In such a case, the electron rebounds weakly and retains only a fraction of
its original kinetic energy. The missing energy is left in the neon atom, which
usually releases that energy as light.

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