Why do manufacturers call it "BLACK LIGHT" if it is not black? What is it? How does it works?

Question

I'm talking about the special flood type bulbs used for bugs lamps.

Answer 1

Go to this website.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/black-light.htm

Answer 2

The Black Light is a very cool thing. It has a reason for being called the Black Light

Have you ever done or heard of the kids game Laser Tag? If you haven't, it is a 10-20 minute game inside a huge room. The room is full of mazes, high ceilings, and ramps leading to different levels. If you want to, you can add steam inside the room.
The main idea of the game is to shoot other players with your laser gun, if you do, you get points. It is very dark in the room.

Laser Tag uses Black Lights all the time while in game. If a person was wearing all white, they would appear glowing in the black light. If they were wearing all black, they would be barely visible in the light.

Answer 3

I do not know about black light for bug lamps. What I do recall from photography classes I took is that in the dark room they called the lights black lights. They called them that because you could still see in the room with those lights on but it did not effect or expose the film we had out in the open in the dark room. We had "black light."

Answer 4

it's just a lower wavelength of light. They call it "black" because it's below the visual spectrum. We can only see the purplish fringe of the spectrum. The rest is invisible to us. Its like an infrared remote control. When you press a button, you can't see any light, but if you point it into a video camera, you will see some light, because the video camera has a wider spectral response. Sorry if this is too simplified.

Answer 5

I believe it just gives off ultraviolet light.

Answer 6

RaCIST.