How Do Light Bulbs Work?

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Resistance Properties of a Light bulb What is a light bulb, and how does it work anyway? An Incandescent bulb, more commonly referred to as a light bulb is a device that pushes electricity through a filament located at the top of the bulb. By doing this, the filament produce two forms of energy; heat and light energy. In this case heat is the waste product and is no use to the user of the bulb, they just want the light energy produced inside the filament. In nearly all bulbs now, the filament is protected from oxidation with the outside by filling the bulb with different gasses or just by causing a vacuum inside the area around the filament. Usually the gas inside a bulb will be Argon as it does not react with other atoms as freely. Even though our atmosphere only contains around 21% Oxygen it would still cause the filament to oxidize and burn at a quicker rate, this would cause the filament to burn out in under three seconds. Incandescent light bulbs are made in a variety of different sizes, power, brightness and efficiency. Despite this filament bulbs still keep their title as a cheap, portable and quick to organize source of light available to nearly everybody who has access to electricity. This is a very close up picture of a light bulbs filament This is a very close up picture of a light bulbs filament New, more efficient types of bulbs are available to consumers, however most of them come with their bad points such as costing more as other bulbs or taking more time to turn on. As technology, practicality and versatility all improve we can expect to see more people buying them. Incandescent bulbs only turn 5% of their input into useful energy, the rest being turned into heat energy. How Bright is an Incandescent Light bulb and How Much Energy Does It Require? Brightness is usually measured in a unit call Lumens, Lumens refer to the amount of light

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