I notice my xbox green ligth blinking when i put the fan in front of it turned on why does it do that?

Question

When you take the fan from in front of the box green light its solid but place the fan back in front of it and it blinks not rappidly but like a slow on...... off.... on..... offf .... on.... off.. like um about as slow as the blinking yellow crosswalk light.. I think thats really trippy.. can someone explain this to me?

Answer 1

Actually the light isn't steady; It is flashing at the AC line rate of 60 Hz (60 times a second) which is too fast to make out. The fan blades interrupt your view of the light at some slower rate. Occasionally the lamp will be visible when it's not lit a few times in a row and appear dark while at other times while lit and appear light. This causes it to appear to be noticeably flashing. Its the same effect you get while viewing wheels that appear to stop turning or rotate backward on TV (Picture refresh rate vs wheel rotation rate).

This whole business is called a Stroboscopic effect.