How does a Lightbulb work?

To understand how a lightbulb works, let’s talk about its use, which is to turn electrical power into visible light.

A light bulb is essentially a device designed to make light by getting something very hot.

Let’s go through what makes up a light bulb:

• Filament: This is a very thin coiled wire which is usually made from a metal called Tungsten. The reason we choose tungsten is that it has a very high melting point, which means that we can heat it up a lot without it melting.

• Glass Bulb: This covers and surrounds both the filaments and wires

• Inert Gas: Inside the light bulb, we use a special gas, which is usually argon, which is unreactive. The gas is important because it keeps oxygen away, which would cause the Tungsten to burn up.

• Metal Contacts and Wires: You can find metal contacts at the base, which connect to wires inside, which are connected to the filament. This is so electricity can flow into the bulb.

Now let’s get into how it produces light:

1. When you switch on a light, an electric current, which is a flow of tiny particles called electrons, enters the bulb through the metal contacts and goes all the way to the thin filament.

2. As the electrons flow through the super-thin tungsten filament, they constantly crash into the atoms that make up the wire, which causes the atoms to vibrate extremely fast, heating up the filament to extreme temperatures of about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. As the Tungsten atoms get hotter, they release packets of energy, which are photons, basically, light. It releases visible light as well as infrared light.

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