Here’s what I understand:
1. Light is photons.
2. Photons are created when an electron moves from a higher energy orbital to a lower energy orbital (loses energy).
My question: what causes this constant source of (energy loss of electrons?) photons? When I turn on a light, light is emitted constantly. This means that electrons are continuously dropping in orbital levels emitting a constant stream of photons creating light. Let’s take the incandescent light bulb for example. I send current into a filament to heat it up due to its resistance. The filament gets so hot that it glows, producing light. Likely due to my lack of complete understanding of particle physics, I see we are introducing a continuous form of energy, and it makes sense that tons of electrons would begin moving up orbitals as they’ve become excited. What is causing this same constant drop of energy of other electrons entering the lower orbitals. My question might even be better phrased, what causes electrons to drop into lower orbitals?
In: Physics
The electrons that get pushed through a filament heat it up above the level where it starts to emit photons. ATA certain moment there’s an equilibrium, where the amount of electrical energy entering the filament matches the amount of photonic energy that gets emitted. This process doesn’t oscillate hence the the output is constant.
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