Isnt it fun, when at a rave/disco/party/whatever they turn the lights out, put on the uv machine and everyones white clothing shines sooo brightly. Especially white underwear. But i digress. The reason for this is the added 'whiter than white' in washing powder.
So why not add the 'whiter than white' ingredient, ( called organic fluorescers, or optical brighteners ) to white lines in roads. Then modify car headlamps to include UV spectrum, and hey presto, the white lines glow brighter than John Travoltas white socks at a 70's disco.
Obviously would have to have little warning stickers on car headlamps to stop people sunning themselves. But other than that....-- Bobble, Nov 08 2004 Why white seems to glow so brightly in darklights is because everything else is so dark. Try turning on a darklight when the lights are on - you likely won't be able to tell the difference.
Now if you were to include only the UV specturm in headlights, that would work fine. The pedestrian wearing red clothing crossing the road however...-- Worldgineer, Nov 08 2004 I think you probably want UV fluorescent material rather than UV reflective as you want the returned light to be in the visible spectrum.-- st3f, Nov 08 2004 The ingredients added are called optical brighteners or organic flourescers ( apparently ). And the are UV fluorescent, yes.-- Bobble, Nov 08 2004 Actually, you'd be much better off including minute glass beads. These would then strongly reflect the car's beams (the "cat's eye" effect). However, that is thoroughly Baked, both in highway lines and street signs.
As for your suggestion, the lines can only reflect as much light as is shone on them (and without the beads, the light will be dispersed in all directions). Since UV takes more energy to produce in the first place, the lines will actually be dimmer than if illuminated by regular headlamps, for the same wattage.
The headlamps will be less blinding, though, which I guess would be a positive.-- DrCurry, Nov 08 2004 If I understand [Curry], you could make headlights that are phenomenally bright in the UV spectrum, indiscrimately tanning anything in their way. This would not blind oncomers but would make the UV strips (and any white underwear around) shine like the sun.-- bungston, Nov 08 2004 [+]My bun is for having Headlights that have (slightly) more of a UV component...So not quite the UV reflective white lines called for (mainly because they probably already are!). If it helps people see the road, kids, and womens underware this is a definte winner! Might be a problem in snow conditions, though.-- Dub, Sep 05 2005 random, halfbakery