glow in the dark stars, paint, tshirt graphics, etc. – how does it work? does it lose the ability over time? whats actually happening when i turn the lights off?
(might need more like an eli10, not sure what “light bending” means and thats what i saw mentioned a couple times when i tried finding this out for myself, tia)
In: 4
Well. They contain some form of phosphorescent coating. “Phosphorescent” is a mouthful, so I’ll just use “magic”, since to a 5 year old that’s close enough to what is happening.
When the lights are on, the magic powder gains energy from light rays hitting them. Light is essentially a form of energy, and the magic powder is able to collect and store this energy.
The magic powder now has a lot of energy, and is now very active. You can think of it like a hyperactive kid: kid moves around a lot, releasing excess energy. A similar thing is happening here, where the particles of the magic powder are very active, and we see the energy released as light. When external light sources (sun, lightbulb etc) is removed, we can see it. I’m not sure whether this light is constantly being emitted so I will not comment.
And as there is no actual reaction here, the magic powder is not being depleted so the effect should last forever, so long as the powder isn’t washed away.
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