Student: Griffin Bradford

Address: 22702 Pickerel Circle, 33428 Boca Raton, Florida

Phone Number: (561)-479-6271
Email: killmanjaros@hotmail.com
School: West Boca Raton Community High School
Address: 12811 Glades Road Boca Raton, FL 33498
Phone Number: (561)-672-2001
Teacher: Maria Aparicio
Email: aparicm@palmbeach.k12.fl.us
Category: Contrived

Black Fluorescence
A black light is a lamp that produces highly energetic electromagnetic radiation in
the ultraviolet range, which is out of the visible spectrum of light. Ultraviolet light
has a wavelength roughly between 10nm and 400nm, while the human’s
perceptible range is about 400nm-700nm. Objects that glow under a black light
are called fluorescent or phosphorescence. They usually have a rigid structure
with delocalized electrons, or having electrons not associated with a single
covalent bond or atom. The way that these objects appear to glow is that the
object absorbs the incoming ultraviolet radiation, and then reemits it nearly
instantaneously. This action of course must follow the second law of
Thermodynamics and lose energy in the process. This then makes the reemitted
light have less energy, and therefore be in the visible light spectrum, giving it a
glowing effect. Basically, the photons released by the lamp excite the delocalized
electrons and then bounce back with lower energy, which you then can see. Some
examples of these materials are: White Paper, Petroleum Jelly, Tonic Water,
Vitamins, and Laundry Detergents. As seen in the picture, the shirt is fluorescent
because of the laundry detergent inside of it has a rigid structure and delocalized
electrons, thus allowing the photons to bounce off at a lower energy and make
the T-shirt glow. As you can also see, nothing else was illuminated besides the
shirt because nothing else contained a fluorescent compound.