Editing Strobe light (section)

{{short description|Device producing regular flashes of light}}
{{redirect|Strobe}}
{{redirect|Strob|the fungicide class|Strob fungicide}}
{{for-multi|the Red Sebastian song|Strobe Lights|the Jason Derulo song|Strobelight (song)}}
{{refimprove|date=January 2008}}
[[File:StrobeLight.jpg|thumb|Blue Strobe light]]

A '''strobe light''' or '''stroboscopic lamp''', commonly called a '''strobe''', is a device used to produce regular flashes of [[light]]. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a [[stroboscope]]. The word originated from the [[Ancient Greek]] {{wikt-lang|grc|στρόβος}} (''{{grc-transl|στρόβος}}''), meaning "act of whirling".

A typical commercial strobe light has a flash energy in the region of 10 to 150 [[joule]]s, and discharge times as short as a few milliseconds, often resulting in a flash power of several [[kilowatt]]s. Larger strobe lights can be used in “continuous” mode, producing extremely intense illumination.

The light source is commonly a [[xenon flash lamp]], or ''flashtube'', which has a complex [[spectrum]] and a [[color temperature]] of approximately 5,600 [[kelvin]]s. To obtain colored light, [[color gel|colored gels]] may be used.