this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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Night lights that detect light levels are probably flickering so fast that it just appears to be on (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by rockSlayer@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Ok so I got this idea not while showering, but because I'm very high. The story does come from my bathroom though! I have a night light in my bathroom, and I was looking at the night light as I turned off the bathroom light. I'm a big nerd so I remembered that the things that detect light levels are actually diodes wired in reverse. I thought it would be funny to make it flicker by reflecting the light back on the diode, but it didn't work. That's when I had this realization

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[โ€“] Dkarma@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You need to research how optical sensors actually work.

[โ€“] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

From this source:

A phototransistor is a type of bipolar transistor in which the base-collector junction comes into light. This results in the same behavior of a photodiode

I'm high and I just wanted to post something low effort that I thought was funny. I know it's more complex than the way I described it.

Edit: also, diodes are directional. Saying that a photodiode is "a diode wired in reverse" should be the first sign that I know more than what I'm actually saying. All diodes are capable of reacting to light, a photodiode exploits and amplifies the principle.