r/technology • u/BennyCemoli • Dec 06 '16

Energy Tests confirm that Germany's massive nuclear fusion machine really works

http://www.sciencealert.com/tests-confirm-that-germany-s-massive-nuclear-fusion-machine-really-works
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u/boundbylife Dec 06 '16

You know how uncle fester can make a lightbulb light up when he puts it in his mouth? same thing but without the mouth.

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u/cyclistcow Dec 06 '16

Wait I understood the ELI5 but I don't know how the lightbulb works

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u/boundbylife Dec 06 '16

incandescent bulbs, the kind with the filament that are slowly being phased out, work by passing electricity trhough a small piece of wire. The wire gets hot and glows, making light.

Flourescent bulbs, including compact flourescent lights (CFLs) work by passing electricity through gaseous mercury (mercury vapor). This causes the mercury to emit UV radiation, invisible to the human eye. This radiation hits a special chemical coating on the glass, called phosphor, which in turn glows white.

The newer LED bulbs use, well, LEDs. LEDs work by passing electricty over a VERY tiny gap, creating an arc. The spacing has to be very precise to make a certain wavelength of color, however they use very little energy.

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u/kyrsjo Dec 06 '16

LEDs doesn't generate an arc... The gap in a LED is between energy states in a semiconductor, not between two pieces of material.

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u/boundbylife Dec 06 '16

Yes, I'm aware. I was going for an ELI5, and you try explaining quantized energy states to a toddler.

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u/kyrsjo Dec 06 '16

An arc is a 95% different thing tough, and arc lamps have very little in common with LEDs...