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Most simple incandescent light bulbs are made of a thin section of tungsten through which the current flows.

This section of tungsten is called a "filament".

The tungsten filament has electrical resistance and so is a resistor.

As a resistor it develops a voltage drop. This voltage drop multiplied by the amperage passing through it equals the wattage of the bulb.

The heated tungsten gets to thousands of degrees above room temperature and becomes hot enough to produce yellow-white visible light.

As a resistor, the tungsten light bulb has a positive resistance coefficient.

This means that the electrical resistance goes up when the filament becomes hot.

For example, a 100 watt light bulb operated at 120 volts - it does not matter if it is AC or DC for this calculation - will have a resistance of 144 ohms when hot and draw .833 ampere.

When cold the filament typically has a resistance of only 10 ohms which increases as the filament heats up.

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Justus Rau

Lvl 10
2y ago

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