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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[–] Chozo@fedia.io 23 points 7 months ago

Modern night lights won't have this happen, as they have a built-in "buffer" to prevent rapid on/off cycles like that.

But I do remember having an old night light when I was younger, probably from the late 80s, that you could make flicker by putting your hand in front of the bulb so that the light reflects back onto the sensor, effectively turning it into a very fast Useless Machine.