Does Light Energy Produce Heat?
Most recent answer: 06/13/2015
Q:
Does the light energy from an incandescent light bulb produce heat.You often see quoted that 90% of the energy is given off as heat and 10% as light.Does that 10% also produce heat ?
- Steve Bates (age 50)
Dublin Ireland
- Steve Bates (age 50)
Dublin Ireland
A:
Hello Steve,
It sure does. Light has energy and will warm up any object that absorbs it. Think of standing in the sunlight on a bright summer day. You will probably get hot and want to move to a shadier spot. If a surface is shiny the light may bounce off but eventually it will get absorbed by some other object and warm it up.
In 1905 Albert Einstein published a paper that explained experimental data from the photoelectric effect as being the result of light energy being carried in discrete quantized packets. He won a Nobel Prize for this work. You might want to check out this website for additional information.
LeeH
(published on 06/13/2015)