Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: CliffordK on 03/03/2013 22:56:57
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As I was driving this weekend, I noticed that vehicle headlights were of different colors:
Soft White, white with a slight yellow tinge.
Bright White, a fairly pure white, or very faint blue.
Some a little blue.
Some a lot blue
And, one that I thought was even more blue-green.
So, what is the best color?
I would suggest a few criteria,
The ability to illuminate the road under a variety of conditions (normal, rain, fog, snow, etc)
The more broad spectrum of light, the better colors should show up.
Finally, how do the lights affect oncoming traffic?
Personally, I found that the "soft white" was least annoying to me in an oncoming vehicle.
The bright white, and blues seemed to be more blinding. Although, it is difficult to tell without rigorous data collection.
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Yellow headlamps used to be compulsory in France ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow
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On the point of France and headlamps, returning from Strasbourg some years ago, the snow was falling so heavy I had to turn my headlamps off because my own headlamps were dazzling me as they reflected off the falling wall of snow. At this point I decided to pull in at the next Les Routier for the night.
One major problem with all headlamps is poor alignment. Isn't it time auto aligning lamps were fitted? There must be a way to do this. Of course, that wont solve the other major problem of loonies who drive without lights or on main beam when approaching on-coming traffic or a few feet off your rear bumper (fender).
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Perhaps what the governments need to provide is a place where home mechanics can drive up and test their headlight alignments. I.E. A parking lot with alignment points on the ground and on a wall in front of the vehicles.
Of course, with a loaded vehicle, a normally downward pointing headlamp may shift somewhat more upward in direction.
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I tend to damm my car with faint praise by saying the best thing about it are the head lights (xenon arc)
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Bad alignment, causing dazzling to oncoming drivers (or the driver of the car in front) seems to be becoming an every worsening menace where I drive.
If the top-edge of your beam is below the level of the bottom of the rear-window of the car in front, you're probably okay. If it's shining in their rear window then SORT IT OUT!
(I have been tempted to put a passive-aggressive retro-reflective warning sign in my rear-window, visible only to those with too-high lamp alignment ... but haven't got around to it ... yet)