What is the difference between a fluorescent light and a neon light?
A neon light is the sort of light you see used in advertising signs. These signs are made of long, narrow glass tubes, and these tubes are often bent into all sorts of shapes. The tube of a neon light can spell out a word, for example. These tubes emit light in different colors. A fluorescent light, on the other hand, is most often a long, straight tube that produces white light. You see fluorescent lights in offices, stores and some home fixtures. The idea behind a neon light is simple. Inside the glass tube there is a gas like neon, argon or krypton at low pressure. At both ends of the tube there are metal electrodes. When you apply a high voltage to the electrodes, the neon gas ionizes, and electrons flow through the gas. These electrons excite the neon atoms and cause them to emit light that we can see. Neon emits red light when energized in this way. Other gases emit other colors. A fluorescent light works on a similar idea but it has an extra step. Inside a
