Will a lightbulb work in a completely black room?

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:17pm #1

As title suggests. Cant find anything on google. If a room was totally painted black with no light coming in and nothing else in it what would it look like if you turned a light on?

OutlawPete · 27-10-2011 10:18pm

Of course it would work.

Sure what good would torches be in a dark room if it didn't?

Marcus_Crassus · 27-10-2011 10:18pm

Are you serious?

It would look like a bulb hanging in the middle of a dark room..

27-10-2011 10:18pm

It would look like a room painted black.

I don't get the problem.

GetWithIt · 27-10-2011 10:18pm

?? Seriously?

minidazzler · 27-10-2011 10:19pm

How black is black? Are you in the room? If there is anyway whatsoever to reflect light you will see something. at very least you will see the beam of light.

chin_grin · 27-10-2011 10:19pm

It'd look like a black room with a light in it.

the_syco · 27-10-2011 10:20pm

Depends on the paint, the black wall may or may not give a reflection.

amdublin · 27-10-2011 10:20pm

Ha ha ha ha!

This has to be the best question ever!

And the answers are even better

27-10-2011 10:20pm

are you on drugs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Egt1Hq4wpE

Immaculate Pasta · 27-10-2011 10:21pm

Racist.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 27-10-2011 10:22pm

What has you asking OP?

Joe Exotic · 27-10-2011 10:22pm

In the interests of science i reccomend you go home and try it this weekend.

come back when you have the answer:D

carchaeologist · 27-10-2011 10:22pm

puffin24 wrote: »

As title suggests. Cant find anything on google. If a room was totally painted black with no light coming in and nothing else in it what would it look like if you turned a light on?

You would see the black walls very well with the light on....

Cill Dara Abu · 27-10-2011 10:22pm

puffin24 wrote: »

As title suggests. Cant find anything on google. If a room was totally painted black with no light coming in and nothing else in it what would it look like if you turned a light on?

Is the tv license inspector lurking around or what?

Victor · 27-10-2011 10:22pm

It would work (black paint won't break a lightbulb), just the room wouldn't look quite as bright as a normally painted room. It you held your hand up by the light, it would look little or no different from when you looked at your hand in another room.

Of course, black paints tend not to be perfectly black. Gloss paint would have a shine to it.

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:23pm

Ha ha, cheers for the useful responses so far. I mean a matt paint, and not because Im planning to do it. Im not that weird. I just want to know if there is a possiblity of having a very very black room with no reflective surfaces and then what it would look like with light in it.

Ruu_Old · 27-10-2011 10:23pm

Black or is it very, very, very, very, very, VERY dark blue?

Aoifey! · 27-10-2011 10:25pm

Ruu wrote: »

Black or is it very, very, very, very, very, VERY dark blue?

Well now, this changes everything.

Saila · 27-10-2011 10:26pm

no, it will be like seeing a black cat in the dark. You will see the shape the cat makes but you wont be able to see anydetail of it you will just see a shadow, now if you take it that a black cat absorbs the light of what you are looking at it with and apply the same to a room full of black [like the black cats] then no light is getting reflected so nothing can be seen in the room if the light is on and there is no natural light coming in there and the walls are painted black.

BASHIR · 27-10-2011 10:27pm

ha ha classic

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:29pm

Saila wrote: »

no, it will be like seeing a black cat in the dark. You will see the shape the cat makes but you wont be able to see anydetail of it you will just see a shadow, now if you take it that a black cat absorbs the light of what you are looking at it with and apply the same to a room full of black [like the black cats] then no light is getting reflected so nothing can be seen in the room if the light is on and there is no natural light coming in there and the walls are painted black.

See THIS is what I thought. Though I aint no physicist....or whatever things would know stuffs re this.

JerryHandbag · 27-10-2011 10:29pm

Get on the blower to Mythbusters

oppenheimer1 · 27-10-2011 10:30pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

You would see the black walls very well with the light on....

it depends on how black the black paint is. In theory if they were a black body (perfect blackness) the walls would not be visible.

JazzyJ · 27-10-2011 10:31pm

What if it's in a black hole?

woodoo · 27-10-2011 10:31pm

Puffin pay more attention in science class

JustAddWater · 27-10-2011 10:31pm

The room is black

TPD · 27-10-2011 10:33pm

If the walls were so black they reflected no light, you'd just see the bulb and yourself. Would be a bit weird really. But there isn't any paint quite black enough.

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:33pm

woodoo wrote: »

Puffin pay more attention in science class

Science is for nerds. And to answer vague questions like mine.

Voodu Child · 27-10-2011 10:33pm

If the walls were perfectly black (ie absorbs 100% of EM radiation) then you would not be able to see them. It would appear to you that you were floating in space.

However a perfectly black material doesnt exist.

Thrill · 27-10-2011 10:34pm

The paint would have to be light absorbing. Don't know if there is such a thing though.

loremolis · 27-10-2011 10:35pm

What would happen if you hung a frameless mirror on one wall of the room?

What would happen if you put one mirror facing another mirror on the opposite wall.

Would you see the mirrors?

God I'm drunk.

Saila · 27-10-2011 10:35pm

JerryHandbag wrote: »

Get on the blower to Mythbusters

OP do this, Id say they might go for it. All they would need is a BLACK room [think padded cell without the padding], walls painted the deepest black there is, and a light, cheapest myth there is I'd say

could be good

im invisible · 27-10-2011 10:36pm

puffin24 wrote: »

See THIS is what I thought. Though I aint no physicist....or whatever things would know stuffs re this.

you'd have to paint it with this stuff, normal black paint will still reflect way too much light, you'd definatly be able to make out the walls/ ceiling, and have a sense of scale of the room,

if you painted it with that other stuff, and had a water-bed set up, where you could lie on it and look at the light and it would feel like you were floating in space, looking at a star in the distance, that would be cool....

osnola ibax · 27-10-2011 10:36pm

Would the light bulb not illuminate the room, regardless of the blackness of the walls. I.e. The walls may not be,visible, but everything inside the room would be?

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:37pm

Saila wrote: »

OP do this, Id say they might go for it. All they would need is a BLACK room [think padded cell without the padding], walls painted the deepest black there is, and a light, cheapest myth there is I'd say

could be good

Will do! Google images wont really be the best place to look. Just black photos really :pac:

loremolis · 27-10-2011 10:38pm

osnola ivax wrote: »

Would the light bulb not illuminate the room, regardless of the blackness of the walls. I.e. The walls may not be,visible, but everything inside the room would be?

You've just invented invisible walls.

You would never be able to leave a room with invisible walls and an invisible door.

Aoifey! · 27-10-2011 10:39pm

I actually really wanna know what it'd look like now.

puffin24 · 27-10-2011 10:40pm

osnola ivax wrote: »

Would the light bulb not illuminate the room, regardless of the blackness of the walls. I.e. The walls may not be,visible, but everything inside the room would be?

But there wouldnt be anything in the room. Bar the lightbulb (and maybe me crouching naked in the corner with a can in hand having an oul drink waiting for **** to get real when I turn the light on)

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 27-10-2011 10:42pm

Does anyone rememner on the back of some pack of mints, maybe silver mints, it said that if you went into a completely dark room and gave it a few mintutes and snapped a mint in half that you would get a flash of light?

I never tried it due to a disability (I'm incredibly lazy you see) but would love to know if someone else did?

osnola ibax · 27-10-2011 10:42pm

loremolis wrote: »

You've just invented invisible walls.

You would never be able to leave a room with invisible walls and an invisible door.

This made me LOL til I choked

Almaviva · 27-10-2011 10:42pm

This has been handled before by one of the finest philosophers of our time :

Nigel Tufnel: It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

TwoRoads · 27-10-2011 10:43pm

I feel some here dont get how big a question this is.

The USA military have been R&Ding invisible suits for combatants etc. for some years . The line of research is TRUE BLACK with absolutely NO reflection. Having said that... a lightbulb in such a TRUE BLACK room would be visible but the room would not. The filament and glass and metal structure of the bulb would reflect light.
:cool:

knird evol · 27-10-2011 10:44pm

"There was no real need for the torches. The Octavo filled the room with a dull, sullen light, which wasnt strictly light at all but the opposite of light; darkness isnt the opposite of light, it is simply its absence, and what was radiating from the book was the light that lies on the far side of darkness, the light fantastic."
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

27-10-2011 10:45pm

If the walls were covered in a really really black, matt material or paint that was completely lacking in colour (impossible to obtain such tack but near enough could be obtained with a fairly large budget) when the light is on the floor, ceiling and walls would be indistinguishable from each other, it would actually appear that the "room" was without boundary, if the light cord was made of the same stuff the bulb/light would appear to be levitating in the nothingness.

Quite a decent question actually in fairness.

osnola ibax · 27-10-2011 10:46pm

puffin24 wrote: »

But there wouldnt be anything in the room. Bar the lightbulb (and maybe me crouching naked in the corner with a can in hand having an oul drink waiting for **** to get real when I turn the light on)

But the beam of light from the light bulb would stretch out in all directions, right?? Im confused.

zuroph · 27-10-2011 10:46pm

oh man, my mind is blown. blown. of course, to observe it properly, I'd need to be painted head to toe in matt black also.

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 27-10-2011 10:46pm

RoverJames wrote: »

If the walls were covered in a really really black, matt material or paint that was completely lacking in colour (impossible to obtain such tack but near enough could be obtained with a fairly large budget) when the light is on the floor, ceiling and walls would be indistinguishable from each other, it would actually appear that the "room" was without boundary, if the light cord was made of the same stuff the bulb/light would appear to be levitating in the nothingness.

Quite a decent question actually in fairness.

But if you were perceiving the room then surely you could see the lightbulb? (taking for granted that your presnece wouldn't affect anything)

27-10-2011 10:50pm

You'll definitely see the bulb, the filament will reflect off the glass and metal stuff at the end of it.

westendgirlie · 27-10-2011 10:51pm

I wanna try this!

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 27-10-2011 10:52pm

Random thing : It is a cool question in fairness which led me to my question is anything ever smooth?
A completely matt surface should reflect nothing - and that got me thinkinh to something that, I think, was in the hitchhikers guide to the glalaxy where someone couldn't feel a spaceship cos it was completely smooth and there was no friction in rubbing it?

Will a lightbulb work in a completely black room?

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