glenn forger
Guest
Do you know, I'd go out with a 14 foot flag just to spite them.
Silly Americans
- Thread starter Strathlubnaig
- Start date
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Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
Pretty rare to see a road like that in Missouri, but the absence of cars is not surprising.He was specifically referring to these cyclists, who do have access to a wide, if gritty, shoulder.
(and - damnit! I couldn't remember the word "shoulder" so kept saying "area" in my post above)
Attachments
Black Sheep
Guru
- Location
- Rammy
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
Looks, on the still at 10 seconds, like some metal detritus on the side of the road. Many times, people picking up refuse for recycling do not secure their loads, with the results as seen. Even in town, things are often not picked up. A busy intersection has had a daybed, made of old water pipes, a pallet, and a mattress, blocking the pedestrian crossing for three days now. I could go into the reasons for this, but you seem already to have a pretty good grasp of what the real reasons are.
winjim
Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
Why not? That's how a high vis jacket works.
Berk on a Bike
Veteran
- Location
- Yorkshire
I was just about to post something similar. Absorbing and re-emitting light is how all colour works. Fluorescent colours re-emit more light than non-fluorescent ones, causing the observer to see a more intense colour.
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
Are you sure, I thought colour reflected light, and absorbed it.
Berk on a Bike
Veteran
- Location
- Yorkshire
My point was it's not incorrect to refer to the flag being proposed by the Missourian loony as fluorescent.
winjim
Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
Isn't reflected light really just absorbed and then re-emitted at the same wavelength though? Fluoro absorbs in UV and emits in visible.
Yeah, that was my point too. I think @Dogtrousers pedantry may have been misplaced.
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
Oh I do hope this becomes law in the UK. I have lots of orange sail cloth under my bench that will make great bike flags and I can supply the sticks for the flags. Are you sure 15 ft is enough?
Berk on a Bike
Veteran
- Location
- Yorkshire
We're going to be spanked for thread drift but... http://www.dayglo.com/who_we_are/fluorescent_color_theory
winjim
Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
We'll get further spanked for this old spectroscopy joke:
Why does mince have less energy than steak?
Because it's in the ground state!
Nibor
Bewildered
- Location
- Accrington
That would be luminescent
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
In for a penny, in for a pound ...
OK, I'm entirely prepared to be wrong on this, but ... (and I'm bolstering my half-remembered definitions by reference to Wikipedia, which is not always wise)
Flourescence: Absorbtion at one wavelength and re-emission at a (potentially different) wavelength.
Reflection: Reflects at the same wavelength as the incident light, and at the same time, and potentially filters a specific colour. retro-reflection reflects light straight back to its source without (much) scattering.
Phosphorescence: Like fluorescence, but there may be a time gap between the absorbtion and re-emission
Luminescence: A blanket term for various kinds of non-heat related light emission. Flourescence is a kind of photoluminescence. As is Phosphorescence.
A high vis jacket works by (retro)reflection
The luminous dots on watch hands are phosphorescent
Things that glow under black light rely on fluorescence (where the incident UV light is invisible, but the re-emitted light is visible).
For the flag to be fluorescent it would need to be coated with a fluorescent chemical that absorbs and re-emits energy, unlike high vis, which relies on simple reflection.
But I'm entirely happy to be wrong about the above. I'm not claiming to be an expert.
Also, the word "fluorescent" in common usage also can be taken to simply mean brightly coloured, but accepting common usage takes all the fun out of pedantry.
Berk on a Bike
Veteran
- Location
- Yorkshire
If anyone in the Missouri state legislature wants to filibuster the bill when it comes up for debate, this thread should give them all the material they need