Phosphorescence follow-up

[sildra]

I borrowed a 405 nm laser pointer from a labmate, since I seem to have lost mine. His is twice as powerful as mine, which is more than a little scary to be playing around with (he's the sort of guy who carries around blindingly/counter-productively bright flashlights, and pocket knives that are as big as the law will allow, and whole screwdriver

Comments

[aryky]

Hmm, okay, thanks for researching and reporting.

Also, LOL. But really, thermal hull but not ablution trap or load gaper? I don't think I would actually nearly write any of those accidentally, but of them, I think thermal hull would be the least likely one for me to nearly write accidentally.

[sildra]

Thermal hull is the only one that's shorter and simpler than the real term. The others neither occurred to me while I was writing the real term nor afterwards when I was boggling that I almost got it wrong. I wouldn't have thought I'd nearly write any of them accidentally, either, but then there it was.

[aryky]

Well, I think the other two get used much more frequently in fandom. Because fans talk about bathrooms more than kitchens, perhaps unsurprisingly.

[sildra]

Clearly we have been exploring different parts of the fandom.

[jezrax]

White paper and white clothing (if it's new enough) fluoresce because a blue or purple fluorescent dye is added to them to counteract the slight natural yellowness and make them "whiter than white". White paint might have that too, sometimes.

[sildra]

Fluorescing is one thing. Tons of things fluoresce. This is phosphorescing--continuing to glow after I turn the light source off. Plus it's greenish rather than the blue that these things usually fluoresce. It's almost certainly a different atomic/band/whatever-the-word-is-in-condensed-matter transition.

[sildra]

Actually, there's a saying: "Anything with lase if you pump it hard enough." Meaning, if you put enough power in, anything--any atom or molecule--will fluoresce.

[brasssun]

If salt on it's own phosphoresce's only weakly, why would it be stronger on potato chips? Would the potatoes and oil enhance it in some way even if they don't phosphoresce on their own?

[sildra]

I don't know. That's why I tried the omlette (if I was going to cook my potato I was going to cook it the way I wanted) but I guess I didn't have enough salt. Maybe it had something to do with it being ground down on the chips (and crackers).

[brasssun]

Maybe it's an aspect of what type of salt?

[sildra]

I expect it would be iodized salt either way? Mine is, and I think the salt in commercial products is. (Maybe it's the iodine that's glowing.) And it's NaCl, of course--you have to go way out of your way to buy KCl salt.