We’ve all seen it in movies and stuff but how does it work?
In: Chemistry
Imagine throwing a ball onto a slanted roof of a two story house. First the ball has to have enough energy to reach the roof, but once it does it can get there, and maybe bounce around a bit. Eventually however the ball will fall off and hit the ground making a sound when it does. Sometimes however the ball will fall onto the garage, and when it does it makes a different sound. This is known as fluorescence.
UV photons are shorter than visible or infrared photons so therefore have more energy and can excite a molecule to a higher energy level, like our roof above. Some of these excited molecules will randomly release light to a different energy level between the roof and the ground level, like our garage case above. This is fluorescence.
The fluorescent photon will always have less energy than the initial photon which is why UV can produce visible light, since visible is less energetic than UV.
Most things will fluoresce given the right conditions, but this can be difficult to achieve. Some well known example in nature are scorpions and some algae
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