Anyone an Expert on Degrees

[petem]

Hi all,
I'm having a discussion here at work. I'm telling this person, that my lights on my reef are composed of two daylights at 6700K and two lamps at 10,000K. I'm telling him that the K stands for Kelvin. He's saying that's impossible, that it would be too hot, that the K stands for something else.

 

[zman1]

Have them look at Wikipedia Kelvin and find the Color temperature section. Also, click color temperature link as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin

 

[bang guy]

It stands for Kelvin and it refers to the color of light the bulb produces.
It's called black body radiation. If you heat a block of carbon to 5,500 degrees Kelvin it will produce yellow light similar to the Sun. If you heat it to 10,000K it will produce a white light. After that the Higher the K temp the bluer the light.

 

[thegrog]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
It stands for Kelvin and it refers to the color of light the bulb produces.
It's called black body radiation. If you heat a block of carbon to 5,500 degrees Kelvin it will produce yellow light similar to the Sun. If you heat it to 10,000K it will produce a white light. After that the Higher the K temp the bluer the light.
Yep.

The experiments were done by the scientist Kelvin.
While it is true that degrees Kelvin also denote temperature, they also are a unit for color spectrum. So, you and your co-worker are both correct.

 

[petem]

That makes sense. Because I dont think I would want degrees Kelvin, in terms of Heat on my tank. Could you imagine the consequences.....

 

[chipmaker]

Its the color of the light and its kelvin. Just looked it up to re-verify it in my pocket reference book...