|
Posted by Mark Lloyd on September 22, 2006, 11:38 am
On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:30:11 -0500, emailaddress@ISP.com wrote:
>
>>FYI: The tungsten does not burn.
>>
>>It glows because it is really hot. Eventually enough of it evaporates
>>into the gas in the bulb so that one part heats even hotter. It then
>>melts, boils and causes a break.
>>
>>RickR
>>
>
>You mean if I twisted the two pieces back together I could repair the
>bulb? I always wanted to do that. I spend way too much on lightbulbs
>each year.
>
I think you can do that, but then you need to remove all the air from
the bulb and seal it.
Actually, some bulbs seem to fix themselves. I've seen it
occasionally, mostly in C9 holiday lights. There is life after death,
at least for those light bulbs. The light will be brighter after
self-repair, since the filament is shorter now and so has lower
resistance (notice that it's whiter too, because of the higher
temperature). It goes out again quickly. That's how I know that if one
bulb in a group is brighter than the others, it's about to die again.
>>Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
>>> >I really wish people would stop saying a light is burning.
>>> >
>>> > The light is TURNED ON.
>>> > It's NOT BURNING....
>>> >
>>> > I once heard that some guy called the fire department because someone
>>> > told him his porch light was burning. Whether this is true or not, I
>>> > donrt know, but I dont doubt its true considering how stupid some
>>> > people are, but that term "light is burning" is really assenine. If
>>> > it was burning there would be flames.
>>> >
>>> > Mark
>>>
>>> What is happening with that tungsten element? It is heated to the point it
>>> glows and then burns through doesn't it? You do not need huge flames to be
>>> burning. In the enclosure, it burns very slow compared to a bulb with no
>>> glass where it burns out in seconds.
--
94 days until the winter solstice celebration
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com
"God was invented by man for a reason, that
reason is no longer applicable."
|