Engineering
Physics
Radiation
Question

An incandescent bulb has a thin filament of tungsten that is heated to high temperature by passing an electric current. The hot filament emits black-body radiation. The filament is observed to break up at random locations after a sufficiently long time of operation due to non-uniform evaporation of tungsten from the filament. If the bulb is powered at constant voltage, which of the following statement(s) is (are) true?

The filament emits more light at higher band of frequencies before it breaks up

The resistance over small sections of the filament decreases with time

The filament consumes less electrical power towards the end of the life of the bulb

The temperature distribution over the filament is uniform

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Solution

For small section of filament

R = r ℓ / A and A is decreasing due to breakup hence R is increasing with time

For total power consumption

P=V2R

since V is constant

hence P is inversely proportional to R and due to breakup resistance of different section of the filament increases hence total resistance increases hence total power consumption decreases.

For different section of filament has different resistance due to breakup and i2R = eA σ T4 hence temperature will be different for different section

Just before breakup in the small section of the tungsten filament

eAσT4 = i2R

R→∞

T→∞

and λmT = b hence the filament emits more light at higher band of frequencies before it breaks up.