How Do Strobe Lights Work?

If you are familiar with strobe lights, then it is very likely that you have seen them at nightclubs. You may have even used them as a part of your Halloween accessories or as a part of a science project. No matter where you have seen a strobe light, there is very little doubt that you know what it does.

Strobe lights are also known as a stroboscopic lamp. It uses light flashes in order to produce a specific special effect that is used by scuba divers and law enforcement officials. This effect is used to send out emergency signals. Industries that use machines with repetitive motions also use a certain type of strobe light.

Appearance

The flashes that come from strobe lights have the ability to trick a person’s eyes into thinking that motion has stopped. It also has the potential to make things seem as if time has frozen.

Capacitors

The energy that is stored in the electrical component is known as a capacitor. It is put into a lamp bulb and then filled Xenon gas. The gas that is found in the light bulb then conducts electricity and produces an extremely intense flash of light that comes on and off at fast intervals.

Strobe Lights That Use Colored Flashes

You already know that strobe lights typically use a Xenon flash lamp as the main light source. The flash lamp also uses Xenon gas. The Xenon flash lamp has a color temperature of over five thousand kelvins. In addition, it produces an extremely large spectrum of light. If you are looking for colored flashes, then it is possible to put a certain type of colored gel in the light. This produces flashes of intense light that are very strong and extremely colorful.

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Colored strobe lights are mostly used for police cars, nightclubs, and science experiments. Colored strobe lights are used for science experiments in order to expose the fumes from specific types of gas. They are extremely popular due to the fact that the eye needs to deal with intense flashes of color and light.

Commercial Strobe Lights

If you purchase a strobe light strictly for entertainment reasons, then you have purchased a commercial strobe light. Commercial strobe lights have the power to produce an energy flash. This energy flash normally has a power of between ten joules and one hundred and fifty joules. As far as the discharge is concerned, it lasts for about a couple of milliseconds. Commercial strobe lights have the ability to produce many kilowatts of power. This means that there is enough power to give civilians what they are looking for. If someone is looking for an extremely high intensity flash, then he or she should purchase a large strobe light that can be set on a continuous mode setting.

Strobe Light Warning

Although strobe lights are sold to the public, there is a factory limitation. One commercial strobe light should only have between ten and twelve flashes per second. This is to prevent epileptic seizures.