Fluorescent Tubes

• Fluorescent tubes exhibit a behaviour known as 'negative resistance'
  • As you get the ions moving, I guess the flow becomes easier so there is less resistance
  • Therefore, you need to limit the flow from bursting the bulb

Fluorescent bulbs

Fluorescent tubes exhibit a behaviour known as 'negative resistance,' which basically means there's a feedback loop where the more current going though it, the more current can go through it. So unless you limit the current, it will keep going up towards infinity (or until the tube explodes or your wiring melts, etc).

Fluorescent bulbs need a small arc to start glowing, and then much less current to keep going