Topic: True GLOW IN THE DARK GLASS (even without a UV light!)

[Lustrousstone]

Thanks Dave 

[Frank]

This sentence from the Wiki link above is puzzling:

Strontium aluminate phosphor is fired at about 1250 °C. Subjecting it to temperatures above 1090 °C is likely to cause loss of its phosphorescent properties.

[Ron]

A lot of Wikipedia entries are not only puzzling, they're outright wrong. Best taken with a grain of salt and viewed as opinions, not facts.

[mrvaselineglass]

The conversion to Fahrenheit is 1994 degrees, and if it was put on close to the end of the process, after the last time it had been to the glory hole, The temp might have been kept under that level.  and yes, Wiki could also be off by a few degrees. 

[krsilber]

Very nifty!  It can only be charged with UV?  I would have thought visible light would charge it, too, since it's used in other glow-in-the-dark things, such as toys.

ps  The first plural form listed for octopus in my Encarta dictionary is octopuses.

[Frank]

Most light has a UV content, except LED bulbs where it is filtered out to add the non-fading characteristic to their marketting. UV Leds are also available.

[krsilber]

All the more reason it should be able to be charged with normal light, I would think.

[mrvaselineglass]

Oh, sure, sunlight will 'charge' it up too, but a blacklight is just sooooo much quicker. 

[Chris Harrison]

The "correct" plural of octopus is octopodes - it being originally a Greek word, and all that.  Noone ever uses it, of course...

[krsilber]

Ah, I see...I thought you had to use a UV light to charge it.

I think I understand the confusion about it being phosphorus that makes it glow.  Turns out compounds that are phosphorescent are called phosphors, but that doesn't mean they have phosphorus in them - the words come from the same Greek words for "light" and "bearer," but phosphorus doesn't actually phosphoresce, it exhibits chemiluminescence - the light comes from a chemical reaction.  Phosphors emit light in sort of a delayed reaction of 3 excited electrons moving back into their normal state.  Fluorescents also emit light after being excited by UV light, but in this case 2 electrons are excited differently, and shoot their wad much more quickly.

Such is my understanding from a few Wikipedia articles, anyway.



Wiktionary:
"Fowler’s Modern English Usage states that 'the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses', and that octopi is misconceived and octopodes pedantic. Octopi derives from the mistaken notion that octopus is Latin, which it is not. Rather, it is Latinized Greek, from oktōpous (ὀκτώπους), masculine gender, whose plural is oktōpodes (ὀκτώποδες). ...

That said, Merriam-Webster and other dictionaries accept octopi as a plural form. The Oxford English Dictionary lists octopuses, octopi, and octopodes (the order reflecting decreasing frequency of use), stating that the last form is rare. The term octopod (either plural octopods and octopodes can be found) is taken from the taxonomic order Octopoda but has no classical equivalent. The collective form octopus is usually reserved for animals consumed for food."