Is lighting sparks

Answer 1

There are four different types of artificial lighting: Incandescent, excited gas, arc lamp and LED. We'll start with the most efficient and work our way down.

LED lamps give off the least amount of light, but are the most efficient in that most of the electricity is used to create light as opposed to heat.

Excited gas (such as fluorescent and neon lamps) uses a little more electricity per lumen of light, but can create an overall brighter light. Electricity is wasted in the low-current states of the AC current used to excite the gases to create the light. A disadvantage of this kind of light is that it cannot be easily dimmed. In other words, it is either on or off -- you can't turn a fluorescent bulb down to 50%.

Incandescent lamps (like the ones most households use) have a thin filiment of material that burns inside a vacuum. The best thing about this kind of lamp is that it gives the most natural light, but if you've ever touched one, you can feel how much of that energy of wasted with heat.

Arc lamps are the most inefficient type of lamp, but they can produce brilliant bright light. Instead of burning a filament, these lamps have a gap between two metal points in the lamp. You have to produce enough electricity for a spark to jump across this gap and maintain that spark to create the light. These lamps are used in professional lighting rigs for concerts as well as in large movie projectors for theatres. The lamps are very dangerous if handled improperly. They can contain toxic gases like Mercury, and can explode like a hand grenade if not installed correctly.

So the answer to your question is "Sometimes yes, sometimes no." Arc lamps create light through sparks, but most household lamps are actually burning.