One of the best innovations in the past two centuries is incandescent light bulbs. The benefit it provides has given us all the capabilities to finish all our daily tasks even during at night. The conception of light bulb has been regarded as a mixture of a lot of inventors’ creative minds that led into such novelty. But in 1800s, Thomas Edison perfected the invention, ensuring that it is adequate to supply us with efficient amount energy up to these days.
An incandescent light bulb basically works through “incandescence.” When you say incandescence, it means the emission of light by a particular object as an effect of its temperature or its state of being hot, which is an special case of thermal radiation.
In spite of the creation of much more efficient and economical light source, like LED lights, there are still many household owners who use incandescent light bulb. This is because it’s the cheapest option.
So for this experiment, we are going to make an incandescent light bulb. However, this is not intended to light a huge space for several hours as that will require complicated methods.
Please take note that this experiment requires the assistance of an adult as sharp and breakable materials will be used.
Materials:
Small Jar
A cork stopper lid that fits the jar
1-inch nail
6-volt dry cell battery
2 1.5-feet insulated copper wires
2 2.5-inches iron wires
Small strands of iron wires for filament
Procedure:
- Get your cork stopper lid and create 2 holes using your 1-inch nail. Insert your two 2.5-inches iron wires on each hole and create a hook on both ends.
- Get your small strands of iron wires and twist them together. Hook these on your two vertically-positioned iron wires as these will serve as the filament.
- Close the jar using the cork stopper lid, placing the iron wires inside.
- Get your insulated copper wires and cut off about an inch on both ends to get rid of the shield.
- Attach one end of your first copper wire on the left battery terminal and the other end on the left iron wire exposed on the cork stopper lid. Do the same on your second copper wire.
- See how the filament glows inside your jar.
Note: These filaments will become hot so do not touch them.
