Re: Fluorescent light - standing waves

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

At 06:01 PM 1/20/2004,  Franklin Barish, you wrote:
> Before changing a fluorescent light bulb that was not going on
> immediately, I noticed waves (dark and light regions with the light
> regions about 3 times larger than the dark ones) moving slowly across
> the 30 inch bulb. The wavelength was about 2 inches and the set of
> waves were moving slowly to the right.
>
> Please explain.
>
> Frank
> --
> Dr. Franklin Barish


I see that there was no undue haste in responding to your  question,
Franklin,  and apparently I should not be surprised, in that plasma
dynamics are not yet thoroughly investigated.

The gas mix in a low pressure argon or neon  or krypton fill
fluorescent tube filling with a mercury trace can be expected
 to vary slowly in time due to sputtering effects at the electrodes
and walls possibly capturing some of the more active component.
 While ionization is a fast process, the slow ionic movement and
faster electron transport are sometimes described as having two
temperatures, and I speculate that it is in the ion recoil from
electron impact near the tube wall that an explanation of
"crawling plasma" will at length be offered.


Brian Whatcott    Altus OK    Eureka!