Phosphorescence

Everyday examples of phosphorescent materials are the glow-in-the-dark toys, stickers, paint, and clock dials that glow after being charged with a bright light such as in any normal reading or room light. Typically, the glow slowly fades out, sometimes within a few minutes or up to a few hours in a dark room.{{explain|reason=This seems to imply that being in a dark room causes the glow to last longer. Is that the case, and if so, why not the opposite (which seems more intuitive)?|date=May 2024}}Karl A. Franz, Wolfgang G. Kehr, Alfred Siggel, Jürgen Wieczoreck, and Waldemar Adam "Luminescent Materials" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2002, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. {{doi|10.1002/14356007.a15_519}}

Everyday examples of phosphorescent materials are the glow-in-the-dark toys, stickers, paint, and clock dials that glow after being charged with a bright light such as in any normal reading or room light. Typically, the glow slowly fades out, sometimes within a few minutes or up to a few hours in a dark room.{{explain|reason=This seems to imply that being in a dark room causes the glow to last longer. Is that the case, and if so, why not the opposite (which seems more intuitive)?|date=May 2024}}Karl A. Franz, Wolfgang G. Kehr, Alfred Siggel, Jürgen Wieczoreck, and Waldemar Adam "Luminescent Materials" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2002, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. {{doi|10.1002/14356007.a15_519}}

The study of phosphorescent materials led to the discovery of [[Radioactive decay#History of discovery|radioactive decay]]. Uranium salts, a known phosphorescent material, fog x-ray sensitive photographic plates, but for years it was thought that phosphorescence was the sole cause of this. The salts were enclosed with a photographic plate in a drawer, and in one of physics' more accidental discoveries, the plates fogged despite an initial external stimulation of the sun. The result prompted a report by [[Henri Becquerel]] in 1898 to the Academy of Sciences. His claim that the uranium salts emitted radiation inspired the work of [[Marie Curie]] in following years, and yielded a Nobel Prize for both in 1903.

The study of phosphorescent materials led to the discovery of [[Radioactive decay#History of discovery|radioactive decay]]. Uranium salts, a known phosphorescent material, fog x-ray sensitive photographic plates, but for years it was thought that phosphorescence was the sole cause of this. The salts were enclosed with a photographic plate in a drawer, and in one of physics' more accidental discoveries, the plates fogged despite the absence of an initial external stimulation by the sun. The result prompted a report by [[Henri Becquerel]] in 1898 to the Academy of Sciences. His claim that the uranium salts emitted radiation inspired the work of [[Marie Curie]] in following years, and yielded a Nobel Prize for both in 1903.

==Etymology==

==Etymology==