The Physics Behind Fluorescent Lamps

[avito009]

Fluorescent lamps work by ionizing mercury vapor in a glass tube. So now mercury atom has electrons in the lowest energy level K and there can be maximum 2 electrons in this shell. Now when you turn on the light the electrons in the ground state i.e K shell get excited and move to the next energy level. So these 2 electrons get excited and when they return to the ground state again they emit light.

Is this correct.

 

[berkeman]

Fluorescent lamps work by ionizing mercury vapor in a glass tube. So now mercury atom has electrons in the lowest energy level K and there can be maximum 2 electrons in this shell. Now when you turn on the light the electrons in the ground state i.e K shell get excited and move to the next energy level. So these 2 electrons get excited and when they return to the ground state again they emit light.

Is this correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamps