Xref: utzoo misc.consumers:4896 sci.electronics:2944 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!tness7!tness1!flatline!erict From: erict@flatline.UUCP (eric townsend) Newsgroups: misc.consumers,sci.electronics Subject: Re: fluorescent lights and my brain Summary: silly question about medical research and this... Keywords: eyes head ache electricity Message-ID: <636@flatline.UUCP> Date: 12 May 88 04:09:13 GMT References: <530@scourge> <1182@ssc.UUCP> <1532@dataio.Data-IO.COM> <2427@ttidca.TTI.COM> Organization: den of sinister exaggerators -- houston.montrose Lines: 29 In article <2427@ttidca.TTI.COM>, hollombe@ttidca.UUCP writes: [some discussion about flourescents and flickering and headaches delted] > All of the above is overlooking a rather important physiological point. > According to my psych. course in Sensation and Perception, under ideal > circumstances the maximum flicker rate detectable by the typical human eye > is about 60 hz. That's why projectors in movie theaters open and close > their shutters 3 times per frame, yielding an undetectable flicker rate of > 72 Hz (and why movies were called the "flicks" before they discovered that > trick). > Therefore, if fluorescent tubes strobe at 120 Hz, they can't be causing > your headache problems. Your eyes are physiologically incapable of > detecting the flicker. Are our eyes physiologically incapable of detecting the flicker, or are our tests incapable of detecting the response our eyes have to the flicker? Before I was old enough to understand the difference between flours and incans, flour lights caused me eyestrain and headaches. (This could have been caused by other effects, but I doubt it.) Even now, flour lights bother me... I just stay out of them as much as possible, and try and have incans in whatever office space I'm working. Just curious. -- Know Future Another journalist with too many spare MIPS. J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007