Science Demonstrations
Fluorescent lamps can be illuminated by means other than a proper electrical connection. These other methods, however, result in very dim or very short-lived illumination, and so are seen mostly in science demonstrations. Static electricity or a Van de Graaff generator will cause a lamp to flash momentarily as it discharges a high voltage capacitance. A Tesla coil will pass high frequency current through the tube, and since it has a high voltage as well, the gases within the tube will ionize and emit light. Capacitive coupling with high-voltage power lines can light a lamp continuously at low intensity, depending on the intensity of the electrostatic field.
Also, placing a fluorescent lamp half way up a two-way radio antenna while transmitting will illuminate the lamp due to the RF energy.
Read more about this topic: Fluorescent Lamp
Famous quotes containing the word science:
“The natural historian is not a fisherman who prays for cloudy days and good luck merely; but as fishing has been styled “a contemplative man’s recreation,” introducing him profitably to woods and water, so the fruit of the naturalist’s observations is not in new genera or species, but in new contemplations still, and science is only a more contemplative man’s recreation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)