Auroras & Light Bulbs?

Our fluorescent light started glowing by itself last night. My wife and I know it was off, but there’s a smidge of uncertainty if the on-button was slightly depressed (which can cause the bulb to half-illuminate.) However, the button would be hard to hit without knowing it…

Silly as this sounds, I brought some fluorescent bulbs outside last night, but no luck. Maybe the magnet storm’s intensity lessened? Also, the bulbs were in a thin cellophane sleeve…maybe I’ll try again tonight - unwrapped (the bulbs, not me, silly! :wink: )

Anyone have any experience with such phenomena? I know such bulbs can glow on their own under certain conditions…

  • Jinx

Dunno about the rest of your question, but unless the switch is a particular type of dimmer switch specially designed to work with fluorescent lamps (I believe there is such a thing available), it’s unlikely that a half-on switch would cause the tube to glow.
I’ve seen a half-on switch cause an incandescent bulb to glow at less than full brightness, but this was accompanied by a crackling noise from the switch and eventually smoke and.

I don’t know the answer to your question either but I doubt it. If such were the case, I’d think there would be a lot of folks with disconnected lights kept for the purpose of aurora detection.

Well, the Aurora itself couldn’t cause this, unless what you were actually seeing was just a reflection in the shiny glass. If that’s the case, then turn around and look at the real thing :slight_smile:

Now, the magnetic storms that cause the aurorae can, in fact, induce currents, with notable results. This is how the Quebec power system got knocked out back in 1990: Storm-induced currents overloaded the grid. On the other hand, to get an effect like that, you need a really big “antenna”, like, say, the power grid of an entire province. If your switch really is turned off, then your bulb will have an effective antenna size of a few meters or so, max, so I don’t think that that could be the cause. If you really want, though, I’ll ask some of the aurora experts around here what they think.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**…unless the switch is a particular type of dimmer switch specially designed to work with fluorescent lamps (I believe there is such a thing available), it’s unlikely that a half-on switch would cause the tube to glow…

Maybe I should clarify this was a fluorescent desk lamp. Without trying, it is easy to make a desk lamp half-lit, but it will usually flicker. This was not flickering, just a steady (ghostly) glow.

  • Jinx

Chronos, please ask around for me if you can. I should add this was a desk lamp with one fluorescent bulb. It had a glow to it. If half-lit (such as if I had bumped the on-switch, it would glow, or light at half strength, but with a noticeable flickering.

There was no flickering, just a ghostly white glow.
Maybe it was my magnetic personality? :wink:

  • Jinx