How Do Light Bulbs Work? | Earth Science
Вставка
- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- James May explains one of the most important inventions to modern lift: the lightbulb.
"Subscribe to Earth Science for more fascinating science videos - bit.ly/Subscrib...
All the best Earth Science videos bit.ly/EarthLab...
Best of BBC Earth videos bit.ly/TheBestO...
Here at BBC Earth Science we answer all your curious questions about science in the world around you. If there’s a question you have that we haven’t yet answered or an experiment you’d like us to try let us know in the comments on any of our videos and it could be answered by one of our Earth Science experts.
"
I like how Thomas Edison is defined as "not-british"
👍
you mean Non-Inventor
You have to admire how the British always bend the truth in their favor, too.
random guy bruh he invented direct current
Why are people judging him? He is a good inventor that discovered many new things no one has every discovered
"... who was British; and by Thomas Edison, who wasn't." lol
an Inventor
skimlines I
@Michael no actually. The truth that no one is willing to accept is that I invented light bulbs. Idk why people have the urge to claim other people’s achievements for themselves...
Got me laughing so much 😅😅you are either of British nation or you are not of nation 😂😂😂
Frrrrrr 😂😂😂
Lightbulbs work by sucking the dark out of the room.
TheBaconWizard This comment, i like it.
piss off XD
. Hhcc
"...By Joseph Swan who was British..and Thomas Edision, who wasnt"....Lol this man is hysterical
It's always interesting when James answers questions. If only he was a teacher at my old school, I would have got much better grades faster.
Light bulbs were such a good idea,they became the symbol for good ideas.
I'd like to see a video on how magnets work, if you guys haven't already made one. I know James May could explain in a way I'll finally understand, as only he can.
Thanks for spreading some light on the subject. I found this to be very illuminating.
get out of here
@@Silchii yo chill out
You are a bright person
There are about a dozen people who created incadescent light bulbs between 1850 and 1882: James Bowman Lindsay (Scotland), Warren de la Rue (Channel Islands), Frederick de Moleyns (England), John W Starr (US), Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (France), Alexander Lodygin (Russia then US), Henry Woodward / Mathew Evans (Canada), Swan (England), Edison (US), Hiram S Maxim / William Sawyer (US), Lewis Latimer (US). Tungsten bulbs and inert gas fillings first arrived in 1904 in a Hungarian patent.
my opinion that the light bulb indeed was an awesome invention was on the basis that you get rid of the need to keep an open flame handy for night time. you then can keep flames exclusively for work like cooking farming sculpting etc. the ease at which light bulbs have given us control of being able to maintain vision at night improved security and more importantly allowed us to exceed our standard sunlight hours exponantially increasing productivity and our sad progress to a life of excess and abundance ever since. the cleverness of its robust simplicity allowed it to be easily mobile or permanantly brilliant. it was also extremely easy to deploy to anywhere in the world. it definitely deserves a more remarkable comment from May.
There is no ban on selling incandescent lights, as such.
What the EU enacted was a law (or a group of laws) about the level of energy efficiency that light bulbs must have (i.e., amount of light produced per amount of energy consumed). And traditional (omnidirectional) tungsten-filament / inert gas incandescent lamps can't reach that level of efficiency.
But the ones with reflectors ("spotlights") or active gases (halogens, mercury vapour, etc.) can reach that efficiency, and are still legal.
When we are heating our homes anyway heat from the bulb is nice. It's a much more pleasant colour spectrum of light than LEDs. We need both for different purposes.
This video brightened up my morning.
Inspiration will be represented as an incandescent bulb for at least as long as saving is represented by a floppy disk.
An LED can still fairly be called a light bulb. It’s a bulb that emits light, yes technically it isn’t a lightbulb but I don’t think it’s terribly inaccurate to describe it as such.
No one says light bulb moment, they just use a picture as an idea
His face looks like every 70's British rock guitar players combined together
Was having a discussion with my kids on my drive home about how lights work. They didn't believe me, so naturally I enlisted UA-cam and to my delight I see May. 3 minutes in I pause to discuss... And they are asleep. All this time I thought Hammond and Clarkson were being unreasonable... But they might be into something.
An A/C voltage changes constantly the same as a Sine wave. In north america the voltage alternates between peaks of 170V and -170V 60 times per second. In something such as a light bulb, it doesn't matter that it alternates as the light output is dependant on the "average" or RMS voltage which is 120V. AC is used more commonly in electrical grids because DC is incapable of using transformers to change the voltage. This is really only a basic explanation though.
Shops in the UK aren't allowed, by law, to sell the old style light bulb. At least, supermarkets aren't, I'm not sure what the regulations are like for any other shops.
I can’t escape James May everywhere I go I see his face
The shirt that the guy is wearing in the video looks nice.
I know I’m a couple of years late but what I would really like to see on this program: how can digital cameras cope with the patterns of James May‘s shirts? Really, it puzzles me.
It was that lightbulb moment that 'LED' to today
ahhhhh these punnnssss my physics homework is now iconic.
I think the light bulb moments will stay even if light bulbs don't. It will be like how we still use the term "filming" when taking videos with a camera but we don't use film in cameras anymore.
Mom: what have you learnt today?
Me: **spills out the whole English vocabulary while pointing at a lightbulb**
I see James May, I click!
An electric current is passed through a coil of wire. This produces a magnetic field. Inside the coil is a magnet. When the induced magnetic field interacts with he magnets, the coil will move back and forth depending on the current, voltage and frequency. This movement is transferred to a membrane which vibrates the air. This vibration is sound. Most microphone works the someway, but the movement in the coil crates an electric signal in a wire.
I'm not sure if this will actually be read by someone on Head Squeeze but if it is, here's my question for James, as a smoker I'm sure he can appreciate this problem.
"Why do lighters with a 'jet' or 'torch' function always seem to break within a few months of purchase, but even cheap ones with a basic standard flame seem to last years or even decades, provided they are refilled, without issue?" The short version would be "Why torch lighters always break".
Thanks if you can answer this!
***** Thanks for the information, I guess its too simple of a problem to devote an entire head squeeze episode too.
Perhaps he could do one in general about 'Why are certain items designed to break?'
I like his British smile
I want James May to read me bed time stories... his voice is excellent lol
There are several different types, but they all do the same basic thing: the screen displays two images recorded from slightly different positions and the glasses make sure that each of your eyes sees only one of them. When your right eye sees an image recorded from a position slightly to the right of the one shown to your left eye, you'll get the impression of depth.
It's not real 3D since you can't change your point of view, but they call it 3D because "stereoscopic" sounds too technical.
lmao i gotta do watch james may for homework
AC is Alternating Current and is used for mains electrical power and the current reverses at either 50 times per second in Europe and 60 in the US. You can easily change the voltage of AC power using a transformer, making it the best for mains power. DC, Direct Currant uses lower voltages than AC and is mainly found in batteries (9V, 12V 24V etc..) that have both a negative and positive end, which the electricity can only one way through both ends to provide power to low powered device.
Can't wait to see the new S-Class on Top Gear. I hope James will do that review instead of Jeremy
Thicker filaments require a lot more energy to produce the same amount of light. Even if the bulb lasted 100x times longer (most of them didn't, they actually lasted less, otherwise they would still be around), you'd end up spending a lot more money on your electricity bill.
Click on the settings, it's available in a range of settings up to and including 1080p HD
You're right they haven't banned the manufacture, these are to be exported.
i was talking about incandescents as featured in this video.
There is a ban of selling these in the EU. Although some company's have found a loophole in the new rules so that some incandescents are still available, only marked differently.
But you're right there is no ban on manufacture (yet)
Forget bulb, how was your shirt made?
I like seeing all the very scientific comments in all of these Headsqueeze vids.
Why are two small vertical bars used as the "pause" symbol? There's no physical representation for "pause" any more than there is a physical representation for "storing data". They're just concepts, so the important thing is to have a symbol that people won't confuse with other common symbols; what the symbol actually depicts isn't very relevant.
Some applications use a "folder" icon for saving, BTW (which is more confusing than the floppy).
Thanks for helping for school 😁👍
Man, you better wear Batik Shirt, it would be cool. Indonesian Batik! It has cool pattern than you wore. You will be the most awesome people in the universe
The problem with LED headlights is that the produce so little heat that they had to inlude a heating system to defrost the headlamps. Ah technology, one step forward and two steps back.
At least two steps back gives us more challenges and great things to discover and achieve!!
I dont know how you would call that 1 step forward and 2 steps back... the advantages outweigh that little problem by miles.
@decenium so truE
Good observation 🤔... The problem here is not the frozen ice, but the range of visible light is limited... So needs to develop such type of led which can penetrate through ice 😀and visible light should be merged in that.
But yes, net energy consumption is lowered by led 😀
i knew the metal coil made heat but i dident know encasing it in glass makes light
Yes, but not to lose heat. Their foot pads can sweat to improve grip, but they don't have enough sweat glands on the rest of their body to make it a viable cooling mechanism (sweat doesn't really work with a thick coat of hair anyway).
Humans' ability to sweat is directly linked to our loss of body hair and was a very important step in our evolution, since it allowed us to keep cool even while running / hunting under direct sunlight, which most animals can't do for long.
I have to use this for school
Some might not be aware that the reason the incandescent light bulbs lasted roughly no more than 1000 hours was because of the Phoenix Cartel. Now I'm about to recommend a video to watch which may look as though I'm spamming but I have no affiliation to the makers of the video so it's ok. Look for and watch "the Light Bulb Conspiracy" if you're interested.
Nobody
I will probably watch it... I'm very angry that my two favorite kinds of incandescent light bulbs are hard to get nowadays and basically have to be ordered on line... I can't stand ordering anything on Amazon and making Jeff Bezos rich
> "Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water?"
For the same reason that pianos aren't subject to the force of gravity.
OH MY GOD, you informed me about a new mercedes, THIS IS TOP GEAR!!
Please, make one video on why ices and cold stuff seems bluish? Please, May! Tell me on your upcoming videos!
It's subjective. Your brain is comparing it to yellow tungsten bulbs, yellow flames and yellow sunlight. So you associate yellow with warmth and non-yellow with cold.
"Camera" means "room", too, but nowadays they tend to be a bit smaller than that. ;)
thank you for lightening up my day :D
and the topic was certainly enlightening
Edison didn't invent the light bulb. He Just bought patents and improved on the design
Wasn't it Nikola tesla?
FTFY bought the patent
+Generic Memes
no that was fluorescent tubes
Patrick Bluth yep that's a fact that very few know.
Generic Memes ummm no, I guess you're a little bit confused here. He's the guy who invented A.C current, also he's considered Edison's rival.
I'd like to see James speak about the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Thx
Thank you James for the interesting History about how the light bulb was invented and how it evolved. One of the most useful and valuable Inventions that Man has come up with. Human Kind would not exist as we know it without Electricity--back to the near Stone Age.
Thank
Everyone should get LED lights. The technology has really improved and nowadays they're available in all sorts of colours, ranging from white light to very warm yellow. They're *much* more energy efficient and it saves you in electricity bills noticably!!
A good cartoonist wouldn't even need a to draw a light bulb to indicate an idea, they just need to be able to actually tell a story.
i knew he'd mention the merc's LED car :p
Could have gone into a bit more detail about different types of light bulbs (ex., halogen, mercury vapour, etc.).
You still get the basics though
One great thing about the obsolete"inefficient" incandescent bulbs is if used in a cold home where electricity economically competes with other energy in the area for producing heat ...I mean if you are trying to heat the home anyway? Why not let the light bulbs HELP? You can uncsrew the LEDs in the winter and put the old incans in if you already own them anyway! They are at that point "free" anyway so why not let them serve out their useful life giving you both light AND needed HEAT? Yes it spins the electric meter and you have to pay but you were going to pay for the heat anyway...so what if it only accounts for 5% or whatever of needed heat ...if economically it is sound?
Dougie Quick
Don't get me started on how angry I am that they made it illegal for companies in America to manufacture incandescent light bulbs... I am quite convinced that our rotten politicians here all who voted to make these light bulbs illegal have money invested in the LEDs and the fluorescent compact ones.
Why would they care if our electric bills are higher ?
My son says it's about wasting electricity...really ?... if that's the case then why when stores are closed at night and shopping centers malls and whatnot then why are they legally allowed to have on these huge and massive bright lights neon lights and whatever other kind of lights they have outside their stores in big letters ?.. there's no way I believe all of those are running on LED and compact fluorescent.
All of those stores should be fined for wasting all that electricity if that's what this is really about but I should be forced to turn them off after the store is closed for the night... same thing with all the big cities and places like Hollywood and Broadway... any of those places that are closed at night should be forced to shut down their bright lights outside .
Two light bulbs that I used in my home that made it look very nice in the evening have become really hard to find and I have to try to order them off the internet which is a problem where I live because the thieves and everybody around here hates the assholes in our post office.. how is it that a simple thing like a light bulb has become such a big ordeal.. it makes me angry.
I mean I actually had to call one company and one of their top sales people had to explain to me that they actually are not allowed to legally manufacture incandescent light bulbs in America anymore...?
How is that even possible and yet those companies now or manufacturing those same items overseas in China... sorry but I smell a rat... another excuse to send jobs overseas .
And the two kinds of light bulbs do I use in my home in the evening are colored light bulbs... one was an incandescent dark hot pink low watt about 25 watts and it created a very soft Rosie color that was perfect for in the evening... and the main one I use in the evening was from General Electric about 25 watts ... a very beautiful golden Amber and it was perfect for in the evening... that one was shaped like a torch light or an upside-down cone almost.... if you had told me years ago that they would have outlawed the manufacturer of these things in America I would have told you you're crazy
"The atoms release photons when their electrons become excited by the electrical current"
I think that's not quite accurate. Electrons become excited because of the heat which is a result of the electrical current flowing through a wire (resistance).
alterro: Heat is at molecular level not atomic level. Heat means nothing to electrons. The election is pushed up to a higher obit by the electron nudge of the electric current and when it drops back to its original orbit it emits a photon of light.
@@ZigSputnik If heat is simply the excitement of atoms, how is heat not on the atomic level?
Hello, can i use your videos to explain some technologies. My videos will be in Uzbek language
We'll still have "lightbulb moments" in the lexicon. It will just be one of those things people say but no one knows why. Like saying "bless you" after someone sneezes.
bulb produces light
The automatic subtitles came on this episode, and they were impossible to read because of James' shirt xD
I will have a "James May" moment (more up to date than a light bulb.
I don't see why Mercedes is bragging about a car with no bulbs. Ford did that in the 1930s. :) Actually,I think the LEDs are pretty neat. I don't particularly like the light they produce but they are very efficient and last a very long time & that is a win in my book.Like I said,it's not a huge deal but,I don't really like the quality of light LEDs produce but that's because I grew up with bulbs & prefer that light.I find it a little softer.. I would presume it's a non issue for younger people
agreed
Tut tut, headsqueeze/BBC Labs, the lightbulb was as invented by Thomas Edison as much as the German Chocolate Cake was invented by Germans. Warren de la Rue demonstrated the electrical light bulb, all Swan & Edison did was rush to the patent office once they had invented a (more) practical version.
I wonder if we were to make a light bulb filled with inert gas, and then placed under the best vacuum, if it would be any more energy efficient than a standard filled inert gas
Energy efficient means they give more light for the amount of electricity consumed. If they gave less light, they would be less efficient than the old ones, not more.
You're probably either buying extremely low-power bulbs, or you're buying low-quality CFL bulbs that take ages to reach their peak brightness.
There are many different types of high-efficiency lamps out there, from LED-based to halogen, from mercury vapour to fluorescent, and even some high-efficiency "plain" incandescent bulbs.
2019 top gear RIP James may
you might want to think about keeping tubs/buckets/bottles of hot water around. Even a running tap of hot water can quickly heat a room up, extra insulation also helps, nothing fancy just wet some newspaper strips and stick them to the edges of windows. Or... you know... get a job and pay your bills. Which ever works.
why only 360p ?
if you dont say it as L.E.D. moment but just led moment, it sounds fine ;)
Even that style of LED is becoming a thing of the past. Most nowadays are SMD style in the shape of a disk or tiny rectangle. Draw that over your head…..
I love how he identified Joseph Swan as a British and Thomas Edison as Not British.
no subsrcibe annotations? good job!
Why is there Alternating current? I know what D/C is used for and what it stands for. But what about A/C?
Yes, please make a video about LEDs. I would be interested in watching that.
LEDs have little use for most things. I’d love a video on LCDs
Why is the floppy disk still used as the 'Save' symbol?
great vid
how do you work out the force of an object in space?
By switching them on?
James May is fun 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Instead of a "light-bulb moment," you'll have "an idea."
I've actually stockpiled a bunch of 50 and 75 watt bulbs....
The energy efficient ones just don't provide the same light and the rooms feel dim.
I was one of the first people to be like "Oooh new bulbs and they aren't so inefficient" then I found out I can barely read my book properly not to mention they are more expensive.
Until my stockpile is depleted I shall use the old ones.
It would be pretty cool watching a cartoon 40 years in the future and explaing to.your grand kids what a lightbulb is
Why shouldn't it be possible? It has no moving parts to "wear out", and as long as it's kept on it doesn't suffer much from thermal stress.
I welcome you out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of knowledge.
The cartoonists can still use the light bulb - since good ideas nowadays are rare...
Edison didn't invent the light bulb. He was a visionary who saw potential for the commercial use of electricity products and who also perfected the light bulb patent.
Even the CFB are just as the it says Compact Florescent Bulb. Bulb it's still a "light bulb" maybe it's just syntactic but what isn't?
If mercedes has no light bulbs but leds, will there be any difference in fuel consumption and some of the energy of the engine goes spinning the spin-around-round-thing that makes the electricity to the car. Leds take less energy so is the resistanse in the spinnie-thing smaller and therefore, more fuel is saved?
From now on I am going to refer to anyone who is not British as not British.
Actually in my language we call the light bulb a "heat bulb": žárovka = light bulb, žár = heat