nicktherat says:

i liked the big thumb joke. you gunna apologize to the non nerd anytime soon? 🙂

Uncle Patso says:

“Pedro Have your blood pressure checked.”

Seriously, a glaucoma test would probably be a good idea too.

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Fluorescents, compact or otherwise, generate ultraviolet light which causes the “phosphors” that line the tube to fluoresce, thus the name. Some of the cheap ones only use 3 or 4 colors of phosphors. You can see quite easily: cut a slit in a piece of cardboard about 1/8 inch wide and 2 or 3 inches long and let the light shine on an old CD (finally a use for those old AOL CDs!). With a little practice, you’ll easily be able to see the color bands.

The new “white” LEDs do the same thing, though some generate blue light instead of ultraviolet. The blue combines with a phosphor that glows yellow and the resulting combination is seen by the eye as white, though it’s missing the colors in between. But since LEDs can be made that emit pretty much every wavelength in the visible spectrum, I don’t see why they don’t just make a “bulb” that generates 10, 20, 30 or more different colors that add up to white. LED “bulbs” with 30 to 150 LEDs are available (for example, from cyberguys.com/product-listings/?categoryid=572), but I bet each of the LEDs in these is one of those “white” ones. With the multiple-color device I’m talking about, you wouldn’t have to worry about the phosphors wearing out.

Besides using only 1/8 to 1/10 as much power as an incandescent light, LEDs generally last 50 000 to 100 000 hours. 50K hours is 5 years, 8 months if run 24/7. How many incandescents or fluorescents would have worn out in that time? A lot.