Luminous paint facts for kids

Luminous paint, also known as luminescent paint, is a special kind of paint that gives off its own visible light, making things glow in the dark! This amazing effect happens in a few different ways, making these paints useful for everything from safety signs to cool art.

Fluorescent paint is often used in modern art to create bright, glowing effects.

Clock faces that used radium to glow were common in the 1950s.

How Luminous Paint Works

There are several clever ways that paint can be made to glow. Each method uses different scientific principles to create light.

Glowing with Fluorescence

One way luminous paint works is through a process called fluorescence. This type of paint can take invisible UV light (like the light from a blacklight) and change it into light that we can see.

Usually, blue light or the near-blue part of UV light is changed into a longer wavelength, like blue-green, yellow, or red. Colors like red or yellow often look brighter to our eyes, even if they have the same light intensity. You often see this kind of paint on high-visibility clothing, like safety vests, to make people easier to spot.

Glowing with Phosphorescence

Another way paint glows is through phosphorescence. This is like a light-up battery! This paint can store energy from light it has absorbed. Then, it slowly releases this stored energy as visible light over time. This is why things glow for a while after the lights are turned off.

You might have seen this type of paint on emergency exit signs. If the power goes out, these signs will still glow, helping people find their way out safely.

Glowing with Radioactivity

A third method uses a tiny amount of a radioactive substance. The energy released from this substance can be turned into visible light.

In the early 1900s, some paints used radium isotopes to glow. However, people later learned that radium could be harmful. Today, if radioactive substances are used in paint, they are much safer. The radiation from these substances is now easily blocked, as they only give off very low-energy radiation. This means they are safe to use in modern products.

Related pages

• Luminosity
• Luminescence
• Bioluminescence

Images for kids

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  Fluorescent body paint glowing under a black light.

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  A "Pearl Scene" using phosphorescent paint, from Irving Berlin's 1921 Music Box Revue.

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  This is a brand new Radioluminescent 1.8-curie (67 GBq) 6-by-0.2-inch (152.4 mm × 5.1 mm) tritium vial. It's a thin glass tube filled with tritium gas, and its inside is coated with a phosphor that glows.