Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My project is: how does color affect heating by absorption of light?

I was looking for a heat lamp bulb, and the project requires a 250 plus watts light bulb, but the only ones i can find are infrared light. Is that ok or does it need to be white light?



Moderator note: Project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... n-of-light

Related: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ion-colors

Hello

Basically, if the infrared bulb lights up and you can see it glowing, it’s okay to use for your experiment. If it doesn’t make visible light, then it won’t really test color, so a regular bright bulb or sunlight is better.

Hi - adding that a 150W incandescent bulb may also work for this project. 150W "equivalent" CFL and LED bulbs do not give off as much "heat" (infrared light) so will not work as well.