eli5: if a wire burns in a normal bulb, what “burns” inside an LED (what makes the light)?

Question

eli5: if a wire burns in a normal bulb, what “burns” inside an LED (what makes the light)?

In: Physics

Answer 1

A wafer of silicon. This is the yellow rectangle you will see when the light is off.

This wafer is a diode, the D in LED. A diode is a thing in which energy may only travel one direction.