Will a lightbulb work in a completely black room?

Capt'n Midnight

the darkest* room is the vacuum of space , almost nothing# to reflect light , and if there is you won't see the reflection any time soon

the sun sorta works OK in this "dark room"

to do the expiriment you would simply turn off the sun till the reflections faded out , and then turn it on again, write down your findings in your notebook quickly since the light bouncing off the earth will be back to you in about 17 minutes time.





* excepting in the microwave region of course
# dark energy >> dark matter >> dust clouds

WhatNowForUs?

This is great. Would a light bulb blind you in a room fully mirrored.

With regards the black room you should try it. I did it once - covered my room in black plastic bags and on the floor also, put a Pink Flyod CD on and opened a couple of cans. Absolute cool. One would have to be comfortable in themselves though. Don't smoke FIRE DANGER.

Donal Og O Baelach

But all it lights up is THE BLACK!

Making the blackness easier to see!

Weylin

...ave you been caught watching porn,again.......:D:D:D

Handy11

Don't forget that the air molecules in the room will be lit up, and while you wouldn't see the perfectly black walls, there would be a visible "lighting" around the bulb.

You'd need a vacuum for that complete blackness

sheesh

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?

*sits back on rocking chair

Back in the early ninties all the night clubs (or discos as we used call them) were painted in matt black paint and when the lights were on you could see them.

true story

Logical Fallacy

WhatNowForUs? wrote: »

This is great. Would a light bulb blind you in a room fully mirrored.

Nope, mirrors don't reflect 100% of light. I've been in a fully mirrored room that had plenty of light sources (it was part of an art installation) and it wasn't that bright...just odd as reflections bounced off around the room.

bnt

It's simple to understand if you divide the light in to a) reflected and b) direct.

A wall can only absorb or reflect the light that hits it, and a matt black wall would be very good at absorbing the light.

Direct light from the bulb to your eyes (or whatever) doesn't go via the walls, so the colour of the walls makes no difference to it.

Overall, then you would see the bulb directly, but you would not see any reflected light from the walls.

puffin24

Hmm.. yes.. Thank you for all the useful comments. It started as a question my significant other asked last night. He had wanted to paint his room black as a 10 year old. I assumed it was because he was in a goth mood. But no, he said he wanted to see what would happen if he emptied it and blocked out all light and then turned a light on. I thought this was a profound question for a 10 year old to ask, so I turned to google for answers and as usual boards provided much better solutions. Still...waiting for someone with the funds to do it! I will take all donations to help make my man-boy live out his childhood dream

CrazyRabbit

What if the only person in the room was completely blind? Is the light even ever on then? To an outsider, it could be considered to be both on and off at the same time, yet neither. Without knowing of the light is on or off, how can we tell if it has been reflected off the walls?

earpiece

Ruu wrote: »

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

'They shaft you every time'

BIGGIEsmall

Yes me thinks

I'm no expert on colours.......

Ask Johnny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj84tfS7ag4

osnola ibax

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

What if the only person in the room was completely blind? Is the light even ever on then? To an outsider, it could be considered to be both on and off at the same time, yet neither. Without knowing of the light is on or off, how can we tell if it has been reflected off the walls?

Schroedingers Matt?

puffin24

Only took 10 or 11 years to find a video where someone tested the theory 😁 https://youtu.be/p6q54q2iam8

play4fun1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119705768#Comment_119705768

lost

NickNickleby

Fantastic find, puffin24.

I never saw the thread before now, and I'm absolutely struck by the entertaining tone throughout. Funny digs here and there, as in genuinely funny. Complete absence of malicious posts.

AND, yes it was a very interesting question. Bravo!

What colour would the light switch be?