a circuit in a home provides power to a light fixture. The homeowners want to use a compact fluorescent bulb instead of an incandescent bulb. compact fluorescent bulbs can produce as much light as incandescent bulbs but with less energy. How is this possible

Answer 1

This is possible due to the difference in the technologies used by compact fluorescent bulbs and incandescent bulbs.

Incandescent bulbs produce light by heating a filament wire inside the bulb until it becomes hot enough to emit light. However, a significant amount of energy is lost in the form of heat, making incandescent bulbs inefficient.

On the other hand, compact fluorescent bulbs use a different method called fluorescence to produce light. Inside the bulb, there is a mixture of gases that emit ultraviolet (UV) light when an electric current is passed through them. The UV light then interacts with a phosphor coating on the inner surface of the bulb, causing it to emit visible light.

This process requires significantly less energy compared to heating a filament, making compact fluorescent bulbs more energy-efficient. They can produce the same amount of light (or sometimes even more) as incandescent bulbs while consuming less electricity. As a result, the homeowners can use compact fluorescent bulbs to achieve the same level of brightness while reducing their energy consumption and electricity bills.