system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does "Glow in the Dark" work?
gpt
This is called phosphorescence. It's when a material absorbs high energy light and slowly emits lower energy light over time. edit: An example of phosphorescence that you may not know of is in CRT TV screens. This is why you'll see an afterglow in a dark room when you turn the TV off. There's a layer of phosphors on the screen that light up when the beam of electrons from the ~~cathode ray~~ *electron* gun at the back of the TV hits them.

Or if your talking about glow sticks that's chemiluminescence.

There's also fluorescence: materials that glow under black light but ~~don't emit their own light~~ emit light much faster and don't glow after the black light/higher energy source is removed (sorry bad wording).

And bioluminescence: fireflies, angler fish, some bacteria (Pyrocystis fusiformis--the glowing water you see in Life of Pi), basically anything living that creates it's own light.

I can't explain any of the chemistry behind any of these but maybe someone else can..