How does a light bulb make light?

Answer 1

It does first of all depend on what kind of light bulb we are thinking about.

The traditional light bulb consist of a glass bulb with a filament made out of Tungsten/Wolfram (Two names, same thing.)

This filament is highly heat resistant as long as it is placed in vacuum or have an inert gas around it.

When you turn on the power to the light bulb, then electrons starts to flow through this filament. This flow of electrons is massive as a lamp bulb is basically a pure shortcut of electrical power.

Due to the massive flow of electrons, they collide and interact with each other. This causes the filament to heat up. As the filament heats up, the activity of the electrons increases. Each electron demands more space and this effect limits the possible current with a given voltage.

The filament gives off to us visible light because of the changes in energy levels of atoms and electrons in it. often when two electrons collide, one looses a little bit of its power and this is given of as a photon. Billions upon billions of this happening in the filament and voila. We have a source of light.

Electrons pass through the filament of a light bulb and cause the energy/heat to build up. Photon's are given off when an electron drops down in it's energy level, with a light bulb the photons are seen as visible light.

Answer 2

A light bulb produces light through the process of incandescence, where an electric current passes through a filament, causing it to heat up and emit visible light. The filament is usually made of tungsten because of its high melting point and resistance to heat.