Neon Vs. Sunlight Light Perception
When the sun goes down, sunlight is often replaced by artificial, neon light. While these two forms of light may seem very different, they actually have many of similar elements in their production, even if the human eye can't see it.
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Natural Light
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Sunlight contains different types of light. All the colors of the rainbow are present in natural sunlight, but so are types of light that can't be seen, such as ultraviolet (UV) light.
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Neon Light
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Neon light is produced when electricity passes through gases inside a tube to produce UV light. The inside of the tube is coated with phosphorous, which absorbs the UV light that is produced and turns it into visible light.
Color
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Sunlight appears to be white because the colors are blended together. Neon lights appear as colors, which are determined by which gas is used, because they produce only a select range of light.
Sunlight Perception
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The color that we see is the light that is not absorbed and which is then reflected back to our eyes by objects. Sunlight that hits a shirt that we see as green means that the green light wave wasn't absorbed but was instead reflected to our eyes.
Neon Light Perception
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When we view objects under a neon light, they appear differently than they do under sunlight. This is because only a single color of light is being used, and it changes our perception. Someone standing under a red neon light and wearing a white shirt that doesn't absorb light will reflect back only red light, so the shirt will appear to be red.
References
- Photo Credit "Harkins Theatres - Camelview 5" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: kevindooley (Kevin Dooley) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
