Will a lightbulb work in a completely black room?

loremolis

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

puffin24

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

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

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

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

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

"There was no real need for the torches. The Octavo filled the room with a dull, sullen light, which wasn’t strictly light at all but the opposite of light; darkness isn’t 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

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

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

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

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)

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

westendgirlie

I wanna try this!

epgc3fyqirnbsx

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?

gbee

As a former wet darkroom technician, matt black was not the most absorbent and non reflective colour to use ~ green was.

A darkroom with one white light would be very stark. very high contrast and no shadows with little graduations.

puffin24

Im sure if I explain to my landlady that it was all in the name of science she would be cool with me moving all the furniture outside and painting a room black and blocking up the windows. "But look how cool the floating bulb is!" I will cry as she beats me up with a sock full of change amounting to my deposit.

westendgirlie

I just took a muscle relaxant. This thread is fun

4leto

It would work but just how would find the switch.

westendgirlie

westendgirlie wrote: »

I just took a muscle relaxant. .........

Laxative??

Capt'n Midnight

For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However, more recent information has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light, they suck dark. Thus we call these bulbs dark suckers. The dark sucker theory proves the existence of dark, that dark has mass heavier than that of light, and that dark is faster than light.

The basis of the dark sucker theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. Take, for example, the dark suckers in the room where you are. There is less dark right next to them than there is elsewhere. The larger the dark sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark suckers in a parking lot have much greater capacity than the ones in this room. As with all things, dark suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the black spot on a full dark sucker. A candle is a primitive dark sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You will notice that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all of the dark that has been sucked into it. If you hold a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, the tip will turn black because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. Unfortunately, these primitive dark suckers have a very limited range. There are also portable dark suckers. The bulbs in these can't handle all of the dark by themselves, and must be aided by a dark storage unit. When the dark storage unit is full, it must either be emptied or replaced before the portable dark sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a dark sucker, friction from this mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating dark sucker.

Candles present a special problem as the dark must travel into a solid wick instead of through glass. This generates a great amount of heat. Thus, it can be very dangerous to touch an operating candle.

osnola ibax

Destiny Sweet Nunnery wrote: »

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?

Maybe this has nothing to do with question now but cant they image atoms now using a machine that runs along the piece of matter, detecting the atom spheres ( this is off the top of my head). So a row of atoms cant be smooth and all solid matter consists of rows of atoms*

* may be completely made up and untrue

Red Hand

Been reading Flann O Brien again, Captain Midnight?:P

epgc3fyqirnbsx

osnola ivax wrote: »

Maybe this has nothing to do with question now but cant they image atoms now using a machine that runs along the piece of matter, detecting the atom spheres ( this is off the top of my head). So a row of atoms cant be smooth and all solid matter consists of rows of atoms*

* may be completely made up and untrue

ehh... is there anyone cleverer here?

puffin24

Destiny Sweet Nunnery wrote: »

ehh... is there anyone cleverer here?

Nope! Thats why this thread got so many -"lol! youre an idiot!" comments at the start.