Bird Household Parties
Posted in Bird Toys on 04/08/2011 04:05 pm by admin
Can Birds notice the “flickering” of light bulbs created by AC currents?
So I have heard that light bulbs turn on and off very rapidly (standard household bulbs) because of the AC electrical current. I also know that birds can process things much faster than we can through sight. Can birds notice this on-and-off “flickering”? I have a parrot and was thinking about this today…does the world inside of my house look like a strobe-lighted party to him? Very random, but interesting thought…
What you say is true ONLY for flourescent light bulbs. NOT for incandesant light bulbs.
That is easy to prove. Enter a room illuminated only by incandescant light bulbs. Take a short (about 2 ft. long) heavy cord with you and grasp one end in each hand, then spin the cord rapidly. You will see a blur.
Now try the same thing in a room illuminated by ONLY flourescent lights. Imediately you will see the difference. The flourescent lights flicker so you will see multiple immages of the rope as it is illuminated by the flicker.
WHY?
Your eyes retain an immage for a short moment. When a light blinks rapidly, you cannot see the blinking because the eye retains the light immage. For HUMAN eyes, the length of time the eye retaind the light immage is longer than 1/16th of a second. That is why old movies were photographed and shown at a rate of 16 frames per second. At that rate, you could not see the flicker of the photographs being projected on the screen.
The reson the incandescent bulb does not cause the same effect is because IT DOESN’T FLICKER!
When you asked about “standard” household bulbs, I assume you mean incandescent bulbs. They are an element that incandesces due to heat. Our power supplies are 50 or 60 cycles per second (depending on where you live) and the light bulb element cannot cool enough in 1/50th or 1/60th of a second for the bulb’s light intensity ot change, so no flicker can occur.
The flourescent bulb DOES flicker.
Can BIRDS see a flicker that occurs at a rate of 50 or 60 Hz.?
I doubt it, but if they CAN, it STILL couldn’t be true if the bulb is a “standard incandescent light bulb” because thay DON’T flicker.
The Online Gamer 2