Introduction to Strobe Lights
Whether you are familiar with the device because you frequent night clubs, go all out with Halloween accessories or you're a student of science, you most likely know what a strobe light is. These lights, also called a stroboscopic lamp, produce light flashes to produce a certain special effect and for many other purposes. Strobe lights are also used by law enforcement officials, scuba divers sending emergency signals and in industries in which machines with repetitive motions are used. But what makes a strobe light work, and how does it produce its special effects?
Appearance
The flashes of a strobe light can trick the eye into thinking that all motion has stopped or is freezing within a particular time.
Capacitors
Energy is stored in an electrical component called a capacitor, then dumped into a lamp bulb that's filled with xenon gas. The gas that's in the bulb, which is normally used as an insulator, conducts electricity and produces very intense, sudden flashes of light.
Colored Flashes
The typical light source used is a xenon flash lamp; hence the emission of xenon gas in the bulb. A xenon flash lamp has a color temperature of about 5,600 kelvins and produces a complex spectrum of light. If colored flashes are needed, it's possible to attach a color gel to the strobe light in order to produce flashes that are intense and colorful. Most often, colored strobe lights are used in nightclubs, on police vehicles and for science experiments in which fumes from gases must be exposed. Strobe lights using color gels can be even more tricky to the eye. This is because the eye has to deal with intense flashes as well as extreme color.
Commercial Strobe Lights
Commercial strobe lights are able to produce an energy flash in the vicinity between 10 joules and 150 joules. These lights will discharge as quickly as a couple of milliseconds and have the ability to produce several kilowatts of flash power. If a high-intensity flash is needed, this can be achieved by using a large strobe light and using it in its continuous mode setting.
Strobe Light Warning
Most of the strobe lights that are sold to the general public have a factory limitation of about 10 to 12 flashes per second. One reason this is done is the effect that strobe lights can have on individuals with epilepsy. Strobe lights can trigger a seizure in these individuals. Even with the limitations, about 65 percent of individuals with epilepsy can still be adversely affected by the light at the 10- to 12-flash-per-second intervals.
