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Incandescence

Notes for the term incandescence, where it may be useful or applied to in our daily lives. It is essential to know how incandescence deals with certain aspects of our daily movement.

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20 views

Incandescence

Notes for the term incandescence, where it may be useful or applied to in our daily lives. It is essential to know how incandescence deals with certain aspects of our daily movement.

Uploaded by

Tempo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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"Incandescent" redirects here. For the album by Crumbächer, see Incandescent (album).

For the science fiction novel with the same name, see Incandescence (novel). For information on
the intensity and spectrum (color) of incandescence, see thermal radiation.

Hot metal work glows with visible light. This thermal


radiation also extends into the infrared, invisible to the human eye and the camera the image was
taken with, but an infrared camera could show it (See Thermography).

The incandescent metal embers of the spark used to light


this Bunsen burner emit light ranging in color from white to orange to yellow to red or to blue.
This change correlates with their temperature as they cool in the air. The flame itself is not
incandescent, as its blue color comes from the quantized transitions that result from the oxidation
of CH radicals.
Incandescence is the emission of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light) from a hot body
as a result of its high temperature.[1] The term derives from the Latin verb incandescere, to glow
white.[2] A common use of incandescence is the incandescent light bulb, now being phased out.
Incandescence is due to thermal radiation. It usually refers specifically to visible light, while thermal
radiation refers also to infrared or any other electromagnetic radiation.

Observation and use[edit]


Main article: Thermal radiation
In practice, virtually all solid or liquid substances start to glow around 798 K (525 °C; 977 °F), with a
mildly dull red color, whether or not a chemical reaction takes place that produces light as a result of
an exothermic process. This limit is called the Draper point. The incandescence does not vanish
below that temperature, but it is too weak in the visible spectrum to be perceptible.
At higher temperatures, the substance becomes brighter and its color changes from red towards
white and finally blue.
Incandescence is exploited in incandescent light bulbs, in which a filament is heated to a
temperature at which a fraction of the radiation falls in the visible spectrum. The majority of the
radiation, however, is emitted in the infrared part of the spectrum, rendering incandescent lights
relatively inefficient as a light source.[3] If the filament could be made hotter, efficiency would
increase; however, there are currently no materials able to withstand such temperatures which
would be appropriate for use in lamps.
More efficient light sources, such as fluorescent lamps and LEDs, do not function by incandescence.
[4]

Sunlight is the incandescence of the "white hot" surface of the Sun.

See also[edit]

The visible color of an object heated to incandescence (from


550°C to 1300°C (1022°F to 2372°F))
 Black-body radiation
 Red heat
 List of light sources
 luminescence (light emission by substances not resulting from heat)

References[edit]
1. ^ Dionysius Lardner (1833). Treatise on Heat. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman.
p. 341. The state in which a heated body, naturally incapable of emitting light, becomes luminous, is
called a state of incandescence.
2. ^ John E. Bowman (1856). An Introduction to Practical Chemistry, Including Analysis (Second
American ed.). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea. p. 283. incandesce 0-1860.
3. ^ William Elgin Wickenden (1910). Illumination and Photometry. McGraw-Hill. p. 3. incandescent low-
efficiency blackbody.
4. ^ Koones, Sheri (2012-10-01). Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid: Your Path to Building an Energy-
Independent Home. Abrams. ISBN 9781613123966.

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