Exploding Light Bulbs

[Ian Jackson]

You're right (of course!). 'Twould indeed be 50Hz. But I recall that you could just see the flicker when you weren't looking directly at the lights.

[Chris J Dixon]

That is because peripheral vision is more sensitive to flicker.

[Ian Jackson]

watching TV pictures (on CRTs, of course). In the USA, where the field/frame rate is 60/30Hz(ish), I found it totally absent. In latter years, I seemed to notice it less (or maybe, eventually, simply got used to it).

[Martin Brown]

Modern LCD TVs are often generating 100Hz or higher interframe rates and their intrinsic flicker even at 50Hz is usually less than a tube based display. Large plasma ones at basic rate are more annoying in peripheral vision.

A wall full of large screen TVs can be a bit disconcerting in shops. YMMV

Regards, Martin Brown

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It will depend on the lamp design, but the persistence of the filament usually prevents any noticeable flicker even with a diode.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Maybe required in some regulatory regions and not others, or required for some supply voltages or power outputs and not others. Enables a scale of mass production beyond just a single product.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Something that used to be done with commercial installations back when they used series strings and you didn't want someone checking them everyday, was that a sacrificial set was cut up and used to add two or three extra lights to all the other sets.