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MaggieL · 11-03-2002, 10:31 PM

Ya know, maybe I spent too much time in head shops back in th e day...but that picture looks to me like that cake is *flourescent*, not "luminescent". I think it''s illuminated with a black light out-of-frame. I bet this cake is a lot less spectacular--in fact quite ordinary--if viewed in ordinary room light.

Flourescence is emitting light of one wavelength while absorbing by light of another wavelength. Most laundry detergents include "whiteners" that flouresce when illuminated with the UV in sunlight, for example. (note the white portions of the printed cloth the cake is sitting on) And the "black-light" posters and body paints of a bygone era were made with pigments flourescent when illuminated with UV.

Luminescenece is emitting as light energy from some other source, often chemical or radioactive. Examples are "light sticks", fireflies, etc.
I'm pretty sure I read some recent genetic engineering story that had some poor creature reprogrammed to be luminescent.

It's still a pretty pic, though.

11-03-2002, 10:31 PM	#7
MaggieL in the Hour of Scampering Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia) Posts: 4,060	Ya know, maybe I spent too much time in head shops back in th e day...but that picture looks to me like that cake is flourescent, not "luminescent". I think it''s illuminated with a black light out-of-frame. I bet this cake is a lot less spectacular--in fact quite ordinary--if viewed in ordinary room light. Flourescence is emitting light of one wavelength while absorbing by light of another wavelength. Most laundry detergents include "whiteners" that flouresce when illuminated with the UV in sunlight, for example. (note the white portions of the printed cloth the cake is sitting on) And the "black-light" posters and body paints of a bygone era were made with pigments flourescent when illuminated with UV. Luminescenece is emitting as light energy from some other source, often chemical or radioactive. Examples are "light sticks", fireflies, etc. I'm pretty sure I read some recent genetic engineering story that had some poor creature reprogrammed to be luminescent. It's still a pretty pic, though. __________________ "Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..."