Wow, TIL.
Beat me too it…
What do you want to be beaten with?
I think it was a typo. They meant to write “beat meat to it”
It’s usually a neon lamp, a kind of gas discharge lamp. It can run on 230V without an extra resistor, which makes it perfect for this use case. As far as I know there are no neon lamps you can use to light your room, but there are small bulbs you can buy on eBay or Amazon.
I knew it was gonna be TC before even clicking. That guy makes amazing content.
“Did you ever wonder how [common device] works?”
“Nope, never!”
“Well here’s how it works, why it works this way, and the history of [common device]”
“Amazing!”
I love that guy!
I watched that video when it came out but i guess i forgot about it haha
Watched this last night and it came to mind immediately.
If you didn’t link the Tech Connections video I was going to lol
If that’s old-school it’ll be neon, modern ones get the same look with LEDs. If it’s flickering slightly, it’s neon.
Large ones are pretty rare these days, because they’re horribly inefficient at turning electricity into light. The main place you’ll still find them are as heating lamps (for things like terrariums).
LEDs will flicker without smoothing circuits too. Great circuits will have capacitors to smooth out the ac cycling and diode rectifiers to get power in both halves of the phase. But for $50c less, they can skip that and trust that the customer won’t make a purchase decision based on an indicator light. If the item or your eyes move quickly, you’ll likely catch them blinking like stop motion at 50/60hz
Convinced these give me a headache but I feel like a hypercondriac for saying so…
hyperchondriac
I can understand why people make this mistake. The word sure seems like a place where we’d use “hyper” instead of “hypo,” because it’s an above average sense of being unhealthy, and “hypo” tends to indicate below average.
However, the word “hypochondriac” comes from a Greek word meaning “under the cartilage (of the breastbone),” referring to the upper area of the abdomen, which in old school medicinal thought was where we kept our anxiety about our health.
Thus the “hypo” in “hypochondriac” has nothing to do with the amount of anxiety, but rather the imaginary location of that anxiety.
This has been Etymology Corner. Subscribe now for more pedantic nonsense about language and you’ll get a free bookmark with a rant about how “podium” and “lectern” mean different things!
I definitely remember a specific neon light over my head in class giving me a headache once, but I think it had a problem at was flickering a bit slower than normal
Flicker can trigger an epileptic attack so maybe you want to check that out you two.
The main place you’ll still find them are as heating lamps (for things like terrariums)
I thought they used incandescent lights for those, and some (like the terrarium heaters) aren’t even incandescent, they’re just ceramic resistance heaters that fit into an E26 base (screw-in light fixture).
They definitely use incandescent globes for heating as well. I just remember when I had fish, the shops would advertise neon heat lamps for terrariums. (I think it might have had something to do with infrared heating, but I’ve never had a terrarium so I’m kinda guessing now.)
These are the ones you have to tape over if you have them in your bedroom. Permanent marker doesn’t work. So I’ve heard…
I have one at my desk as a fidget thing, super fun! (switch only)
