Colours under fluorescent lights.

Bert | 21:58 Mon 13th Nov 2006 | Science

3 Answers

Have you noticed that, if you flick the pages of a thick book with white pages in the light of a fluorescent tube, you can see alternating bands of colour? I see blue and orange, but I don't know if anybody else does. The explanation must have something to do with the 50 Hz flicker of the mains current, but can anybody take it any further than that?

Biology

Human Excrement

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mibn2cweus

fechner illusion

Bert

Question Author

Thanks, mibn, but I did not see any colours when I tried the link. Possibly the illusion is not so strong when viewed on a monitor, though many of the respondents said they saw colours, and they seemed to mostly report bluish and yellowish colours. So it may be that.

mibn2cweus

I tried it again today and saw a deep red in the gaps of the inner half of the circle. When I reversed rotation the deep red colour changed to the gaps in the outer half of the circle, same as last time I tried.

I've seen patterns of colours in the flashing of a strobe light in a dark room but I have not tried that lately.

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