Introduction

If you’ve ever been to big cities like Tokyo, Seoul, New York or even Lagos here in Nigeria, you’ll notice that the nightlife is always so spectacular and very easy to fall in love with. You’ll notice those overhead lights filled with different colors of gases that light up the night sky and make your night buzz with life and amazing energy.

Ever wonder what those lights that make nightlife come alive are? Well, they are called Neon lights.

Originally developed by Britishman and Nobel Prize Laureate William Ramsay in June of 1898 after his work on Noble or rare gases which gave him a Nobel prize in Chemistry.

 

What are Neon lights anyway?

Neon lights are actually glass tubes that are full of small amounts of Neon gas under a very low pressure whose atoms being very unstable acquire lots of energy to then become excited and therefore they need to release the energy in form of light energy in other terms “photons”.

HOW ARE THEY PRODUCED?

This light produced is the one now reflected in the tubes which produces different colors.

Neon is utilized in light of the fact that it is one of the rare gases. One quality of these components is that every particle has a filled electron shell, so the atoms don’t mix with different molecules and therefore it takes a ton of energy to eliminate an electron.

There is a cathode at one or the flip side of the cylinder.

A neon light really works utilizing either AC (rotating current) or DC (direct current), yet on the off chance that DC current is utilized, the gleam of light is just seen around one cathode. AC current is utilized for most of the neon lights you see.

At the point when an electric voltage is applied to the terminals, enough energy is provided to eliminate an external electron from the neon atoms. In the event that there isn’t sufficient voltage, there won’t be sufficient dynamic energy for the electrons to get away from their molecules and nothing will occur.

The emphatically charged neon ions(cations) are pulled in to the adverse terminal, while the free electrons are pulled in to the positive terminal. These charged particles, called plasma now complete the electric circuit of the light.

So where does the light come from?

Particles in the cylinder are moving close to each other hitting one another. They move energy to one another, in addition to a great deal of warmth is delivered. While a few electrons get away from their atoms, others acquire sufficient energy to become “energized”. This implies they have a higher energy state.

Being energized resembles ascending a stepping stool, where an electron can be on a specific bar of the stepping stool, not only any place on its length. The electron can get back to its unique energy (ground state) by delivering that energy as a photon (light).

The shade of the light that is delivered relies upon how far separated the energized energy is from the first energy. Like the distance between rungs of a stepping stool, this is a set span of time.Thus, each energized electron of an atom delivers a trademark frequency of photon. As such, each energized rare gas delivers a trademark shade of light. For neon though, this is a rosy orange light.

This idea is used to make an electric neon light.  Imagine you get a tube full of atoms and close it up at its ends. Then insert an electrical device in the tube that keeps getting energy to the atoms. When you switch on the power, the atoms will always be excited and produce light. That’s pretty much how a Neon light works.

Conclusion

The Neon lights are really colorful, catchy, and immensely reliable, so you see them function in signs, displays at airports, landing areas, stores, clubs etc..

That’s one nice piece of knowledge added, Right.?

References

Thought.co