Explain how fluorescent tubes work

Fluorescent tubes are filled with low pressure mercury, when an electric current is passed through, the electrons in mercury are excited and move to a high energy level, this high level state is unstable and so the electron moves back to its original state, but on doing so, it emits an electromagnetic wave with energy equivalent the difference in energy level. This is UV light and the electrons in the phosphor coating inside the fluorescent tube are excited, and releases visible light when the electrons return to its orginal energy state, which provides the glow in fluorescent lights.

MW

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

A piece of card is released from rest at a height of 0.5m above a light gate. It falls freely and a computer measures the velocity as it passes through the light gate to be 3.10m/s. What is the acceleration due to gravity measured by this experiment?


Show that gravitational force within a nuclei is negilible compared with the electric repulsion.


What is viscosity?


On the line of centres between the Earth and the Moon, there is a point where the net gravitational force is zero. Given that the distance between the two is 385,000 km, and that the Earth has a mass 81x that of the Moon, how far is this point from Earth?