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There are many different types of light bulbs. The standard filament style bulb is usually flooded with an inert gas, or pulled into a vacuum, to keep the filament from self destructing. Originally, Filaments where composed of a carbon thread. Since carbon is a resistor of electric, it can generate large amounts of heat/light.This caused almost immediate failure due to overheating and mixing with oxygen which accelerated its failure. A light bulb can in fact burn, without inert gases or a vacuum, however the life of the filament is very short (.5 seconds to 3 seconds from my experience) Florescent bulbs are slightly different. Florescent bulbs use a mixture of Argon and Mercury vapor. Electrons conduct from one end to the other while "bumping" into the mercury atoms. The electrons in turn excite the mercury vapor, when this gas returns to its unexcited state they produce ultraviolet protons. When these protons hit the phosphor coating inside the tube they create light. In summary, different styles of light bulbs use gas in different methods. However The most prevalent method is to reduce the amount of heat caused by an electrical reaction inside a tube.

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16y ago

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