Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son is doing the 'How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light?' experiment for a science fair.
We purchased an infrared light bulb but now I am wondering if we should use a regular white light bulb. Both would be 250 W in strength. Will using the infrared light affect the results of the experiment?

Thank you!

Hi - it depends on what you mean by "regular white light bulb." Incandescent bulbs still emit a lot of infrared light, which is why they're so inefficient compared to LED and CFL bulbs (the infrared light is "wasted" as heat since it's not visible to humans). LED and CFL bulbs do not emit as much infrared light and won't work as well for this experiment because they won't heat surfaces up as much. Either way, whether you use an infrared or incandescent white bulb, the experiment should work as long as the bulb is high wattage and you use the same bulb for the whole experiment.