In the words of the late -great test pilot, Scott Crossfield,
"one good experiment is better that ten thousand opinions".
Scott died with his boots in the crash of his Cessna 210 near Atlanta last week.
He was 84.
So I put a brand new (filament intact) 40 watt bulb in a water glass with
enough water at the bottom to cover the lamp base (slight float)
and zapped it in the ~ 850 watt microwave. In about 3 seconds
it glows blue-white red-orange and white without exploding and in about
60 seconds the water at the bottom is boiling.
Fred
>> Is this Bill Beaty that wrote this?
>
>
>> William J Beaty Oct 18, 2004 14:07
>
>> I stumbled across the explanation under a Britannica entry for Argon.
>> Manufacturers put argon in light bulbs as an inert fill gas. Unfortunately
>> argon has a low breakdown voltage, so if the filament burns out, an arc
>> will leap across the broken ends. So, manufacturers put some nitrogen
>> in the argon to raise the breakdown voltage.
>> But sometimes an arc will strike across the broken filament ends.
>> When this occurs, the normal "yellow" light bulb color will turn
>> brilliant blue-white for a moment (until the filament is vaporized
>> by the arc, and the arc quenches out.
>> But sometimes the arc continues for too long. Or perhaps the
>> manufacturers got the gas mixture wrong. The hot arc will cause
>> the argon! pressure in the bulb to skyrocket. The bulb will burst
>> with a bang.
>>(A similar thing occurs if you put a bulb in a microwave oven for
>> a couple of minutes. The hot plasma inside the bulb will vaporize
>> the filament parts, then cause the bulb to explode via overpressure<<
>
>> I stumbled across the explanation under a Britannica entry for Argon.
>> Manufacturers put argon in light bulbs as an inert fill gas. Unfortunately
>> argon has a low breakdown voltage, so if the filament burns out, an arc
>> will leap across the broken ends. So, manufacturers put some nitrogen
>> in the argon to raise the breakdown voltage.
>> But sometimes an arc will strike across the broken filament ends.
>> When this occurs, the normal "yellow" light bulb color will turn
>> brilliant blue-white for a moment (until the filament is vaporized
>> by the arc, and the arc quenches out.
>> But sometimes the arc continues for too long. Or perhaps the
>> manufacturers got the gas mixture wrong. The hot arc will cause
>> the argon! pressure in the bulb to skyrocket. The bulb will burst
>> with a bang.
>>(A similar thing occurs if you put a bulb in a microwave oven for
>> a couple of minutes. The hot plasma inside the bulb will vaporize
>> the filament parts, then cause the bulb to explode via overpressure<<
>
