# Have you ever owned a strobe light? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988 "2019-09-10T15:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/21 "2019-09-12T01:19:15Z")
I have one. I got it cheap at a yard sale. Back when I taught physical science, we had an expensive one and some discs and a spinner. The disc spinner was a single speed unit, but the strobe speed was adjustable. The thick paper discs were about 12" in diameter and had designs that would change appearance at different strobe speeds. One of them was a cutaway diagram of a WWI radial engine. It was our second-best demo, bested only by watching students getting hit with 250 kV from the big Van De Graaf. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/22 "2019-09-12T01:47:58Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Giggling way too hard at that.😃 I didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/23 "2019-09-12T02:57:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I didn’t get it. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DrYxPH1zH18/hqdefault.jpg "The B-52's Strobe Light") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrYxPH1zH18) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/24 "2019-09-12T09:30:24Z")
I built a custom-made strobe light when I was 13 years old. I hammered together a plywood framed cube and glued textured, semi-transparent plastic panes to all but the bottom surface. Inside, I suspended a balled string of blinking Christmas lights. I had visions of throwing a wild psychedelic party at my pad for all the cool kids in town. We’d groove to Iron Butterfly’s _In A Gadda Da Vida_ (pilfered from my older sister’s record collection), blasted through my Sears & Roebuck portable hi-fi system. I’d serve sophisticated hors d’oeuvres, like liverwurst on Ritz crackers. And surely some of the hip, connected kids would bring ample supplies of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine and LöwenbrĂ€u beer. The air would be thick with clouds of pot smoke. I’d wear my pucca bead necklace and tie-dye tee-shirt—surely an irresistible sight for the hot chicks in attendance. My custom-built psychedelic strobe light would be center stage, shining orgasmic, multi-colored rays of pulsating light on all surfaces. The town would be talking about this party for years to come! I’d be the Prince of Delaware Valley! Yeah, that was the vision I had. Unfortunately, the party did not pan out the way I planned. The only party-goers that showed up were my nerd friends and a burn-out kid who smelled like rotten fish. The only “hot chick” to attend was my next door girlfriend, Chrissy. She had epilepsy. Nobody brought beer, wine or pot. My parents made me hold the party in our musty, unfinished basement, next to the sump pump and sawdust on the floor from Dad’s Sears & Roebuck table saw (made shortly after WWII, and still working in my garage to this day). The only beverage served was _[Boost! Drink Atoast](https://www.nj.com/burlington/2017/08/the_history_of_boost.html)_ (aka flat cola) and hors d’oeuvres consisted of popcorn and Fritos corn chips. The In A Gadda Da Vida record was scratched and skipped. But, the biggest disappointment of the evening was my custom-built strobe light. It didn’t bathe the walls, floor and ceiling with orgasmic pulses of multi-colored light. In fact the light didn’t even reach the walls, floor and ceiling. Which is just as well, since a real strobe effect would probably have triggered a grand mal seizure in Chrissy. My other big failure in 7th grade was my wood-shop shoe-shine box. It just didn’t work and the [del]passive[/del] active-aggressive shop teacher ridiculed me unmercifully for it in front of class for weeks. _“Here’s how not to make a shoe-shine box
”_ Asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/25 "2019-09-12T11:41:26Z")
No, I never owned a strobe light,but I do have a lava lamp. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/26 "2019-09-12T13:34:33Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I own several different types of strobe light [ul] [li]There are some in the basement that get dragged out for Halloween display. [/li][li]I used to have an authorized one in my car (first responder).[/li][li]I also have a couple [Lightman](https://www.lightmanstrobes.com/copy-of-xenon-strobe) strobes that I use for riding. They’re obnoxiously bright when clipped onto clothing/mounted to the bike but that’s their purpose, to get me noticed so that I make it home unscathed.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/27 "2019-09-12T13:40:52Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Yes, back in the 60s and 70s. And I bought one a few years ago that was sold as a “strobe light” but was LEDs that turned on and off, with about equal times spent on and off. This was like a turn signal, and had absolutely no motion-stopping ability. It has since dawned on me how difficult it is to determine whether something sold as a “strobe light” actually has that stroboscopic effect. I think it has to be a xenon flash lamp strobe light – in spite of the fact that you _could_ design an LED based light with stroboscopic effect. LEDs care about average power but tolerate it in brief extreme pulses quite well. [Physics Toolbox](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrystianvieyra.physicstoolboxsuite&hl=en_US) has a strobe function for the LED flash. (Worked well on my older very cheap ZTE but not at all on my current Samsung for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/28 "2019-09-16T05:47:03Z")
I’m rather surprised that nearly 50% of Dopers have owned a strobe light. I feel like I’ve missed out on something
 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/29 "2019-09-16T13:48:51Z")
For a few years a friend and I ran a PA (sound system) hire company. When we started doing raves we decided to add lights. Required items: Strobe lights (synched up to be one great big strobe) Smoke machine Black-light UV tubes Multi coloured light-beamy stuff Psychedelic slide projectors (Also a LASER, but we didn’t supply that. Occasionally a mirror ball came with the venue.) FWIW, you need the smoke so you get proper punter pleasing light-beams (including the LASER). Also if you fill a hall with smoke\* you can make the entire venue strobe. At one point we also had a bubble machine. Turned out to be too messy. - The effect is more of a “mist” but no-one calls the devices “mist machines”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/30 "2019-09-16T13:58:32Z")
The proper term is “haze”. A different type of fluid (and machine) produces “fog”. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/31 "2019-09-16T14:39:17Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > The proper term is “haze”. There’s a _proper_ term for that? \* OK. When you want the LASER to look good do you say “put some more _haze_ in the room”? I do remember the stuff came (in fluid or canisters) in different “flavours” (fruits? seasons? I don’t remember). As long as it didn’t actually smell like real smoke (from a fire!) I suppose that was the point. - This was the 1980s, I don’t think we had a proper name for anything (except strobes). ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/32 "2019-09-16T20:01:38Z")
No, strobe lights are irritating to me. I have owned blacklights and lava lamps. I may or may not have a disco ball in my den right now. ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/33 "2019-09-17T01:48:57Z")
‘Party’ strobe, auto strobe, and camera strobe. I’m a 3-time loser. Also black lights, lava lamp, and color organ. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/34 "2019-09-17T03:05:04Z")
I find strobe lights incredibly annoying. But I do have one in my emergency kit. There is also one that Celtling made, I think it was one of her [“Snap Circuits”](https://www.amazon.com/Snap-Circuits-Electronics-Exploration-Educational/dp/B008PEKYA4/ref=asc_df_B008PEKYA4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312123579962&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1738615715501465417&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008148&hvtargid=pla-436743919575&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=65834404201&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312123579962&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1738615715501465417&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008148&hvtargid=pla-436743919575) projects. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/35 "2019-09-17T03:13:26Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > There’s a _proper_ term for that? \* OK. When you want the LASER to look good do you say “put some more _haze_ in the room”? > > I do remember the stuff came (in fluid or canisters) in different “flavours” (fruits? seasons? I don’t remember). As long as it didn’t actually smell like real smoke (from a fire!) I suppose that was the point. > > - This was the 1980s, I don’t think we had a proper name for anything (except strobes). Yep. Hazers and foggers are two different things, and they are both distinct from dry ice foggers. Hazers are smaller particles than foggers and so they are less intrusive to the lungs and nasal passages. It also spreads faster since the particles are lighter and can thus be easily moved by air circulatory systems. Basically, haze is 1 nanometer diameter or less and fog is 1nm and up. Yes, lighting designers and directors will call for “more haze”, unless they are the ones running the console, in which case they’ll just do it themselves (provided there’s a data line to the hazer and fan, natch). It’s not just for lasers, either. Use lighting folks use haze all the time; that’s what allows us to paint pretty colors in the air with our moving lights. After all, if there’s nothing solid for the light to bounce off of, you don’t see the light. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/36 "2019-09-17T05:17:14Z")
Yep. In the mid-70’s. Got it from the JcPenney catalog. Had a blue plastic housing around it. Cost $17 which was a chunk of change for a 15 year old in 1975. Used to jam to Kiss records while strobing the room. Then the bulb burned out and it was next to impossible to get a replacement. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/37 "2019-09-17T06:26:32Z")
Note: just so you know, the vast majority of epileptics are NOT photosensitive. Only about 3% of epileptics have it. However, if you DO have a friend with epilepsy, make sure you ask them before you expose them to a strobe, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988/38 "2019-09-17T13:31:54Z")
Early-to-mid 1970s. Far out, man! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-owned-a-strobe-light/839988.md?page=1)