How Modern Light Bulbs Work
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Light bulbs used to be simple: just run a bunch of electrical current through a thin wireuntil it heats up enough to start glowing.Bare filament electric lamps were first demonstrated around 1800 by Humphry Davy,and the glass bulb was added later to keep oxygen away from the wireso it could glow for a long time without actually burning up.So the incandescent light bulb is 19th-century technology,and by now there's now a blinding array of electric lamps:halogen light bulbs, fluorescents, mercury and sodium vapor lamps, LEDs, lasers and so on.Each one makes its own clever use of physics to achieve the life goal of a light bulb:converting electrical current into visible light.Here's how they work.Halogen bulbs have the same tungsten metal filament as ...
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Light bulbs used to be simple: just run a bunch of electrical current through a thin wireuntil it heats up enough to start glowing.Bare filament electric lamps were first demonstrated around 1800 by Humphry Davy,and the glass bulb was added later to keep oxygen away from the wireso it could glow for a long time without actually burning up.So the incandescent light bulb is 19th-century technology,and by now there's now a blinding array of electric lamps:halogen light bulbs, fluorescents, mercury and sodium vapor lamps, LEDs, lasers and so on.Each one makes its own clever use of physics to achieve the life goal of a light bulb:converting electrical current into visible light.Here's how they work.Halogen bulbs have the same tungsten metal filament as ...
