Why is there a rim of blue light around white streetlights

  • Level: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Strangeline
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Light
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
1 reply · 2K views
Strangeline
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
I hope I can describe this clearly... but its hard to see this on anything but the newer, brighter, white streetlight... and from a distance at that... but it's there, a distinct rim of blue crests and troughs. I understand that blue light is the most "intense" of the visible spectrum with its relatively short wavelength, sadly that is all the relevant information i know.

but when i stare into a white streetlight, I can't seem to figure out how this light pattern arises. It does not seem gradual, it looks more like a thin, jagged blue rim surrounding a white sphere in my vision.
 
Physics news on Phys.org