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How does interior lighting using fiber optics work?

Posted by CharlesC on Aug-28-2010

Just interested in how this works….

Well hopefully I don’t miss this question completely. I’ve never really seen fiber optic interior lighting… But the principle of fiber optics is based on total internal reflectance. It’s a phenomena observed when light is passing in something of a high refractive index and attempts to leave into something of a lower refractive index but it is less than a certain "critical" angle.

Basically this means you can trap light in plastic/glass tubes if you keep the angles gradual enough. So if you point these tubes at something, voila, lighting.

  1. Nick S Said,

    Well hopefully I don’t miss this question completely. I’ve never really seen fiber optic interior lighting… But the principle of fiber optics is based on total internal reflectance. It’s a phenomena observed when light is passing in something of a high refractive index and attempts to leave into something of a lower refractive index but it is less than a certain "critical" angle.

    Basically this means you can trap light in plastic/glass tubes if you keep the angles gradual enough. So if you point these tubes at something, voila, lighting.
    References :
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection

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