Luminescence vs Incandescence
Channel: Erica Calman
Date: 2023-11-28

A description of light emitted by various means other than from things being hot (which would be incandescence). The modern world contains both luminescent and incandescent light sources, but for most of our history we had only incandescent sources of light. Also technically phosphorescence and florescence (which I didn't mention) refer not only to compounds containing phosphorus and fluorine respectively but to anything which matches the optical properties of things that do. It's complicated, I might explain in the future. Also the other reason we'd historically see chemiluminescence is if we were looking at organisms that were bioluminescent, ie luminescence using their own biochemistry like fireflies or glowing algae.