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The filament lasts for a long time because argon is inert and will not oxidize the filament even at high temperatures.

If air were used, the oxygen would quickly react with and destroy the hot filament within seconds of it being turned on.

Quick experiment: Attach a wire to the positive and negative sides of a large flashlight battery (the large rectangular ones with the two coils coming from the top... I can't think of the proper size). Attach the back of one alligator clip to the open end of each wire (so the clip part is not clipped on the wire). String out some steel wool until you have a single strand (or two or three wound together). This essentially is a light bulb filament. Clip it into the two alligator clips and watch how fast it burns.

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12y ago
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10y ago

The closed glass chamber of the bulb contains, an inactive (inert) gas, Argon. The glass chamber can't be filled with air as the presence of oxygen will cause the filament to burn, i.e. react with oxygen. The glass chamber can't be made vacuum. As in vacuum condition, the filament will evaporate because of very high temperature, making the bulb unusable. The only solution to these problems is an inert gas. The inert gas within the bulb will maintain a particular pressure, preventing the filament from evaporating. An obviously, inert gas won't react with the filament. Nitrogen is also used like argon since it is un reactive.

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11y ago

Argon is what fills and incandescent bulb. Argon is an inert gas and won't oxidize the tungsten filament even at very high temperatures, so the light bulb lasts months rather than minutes.

Having a gas in there at all helps diffuse heat and also allows the filament to last longer than a vacuum would.

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10y ago

Argon is used in electric bulb so that filament will not oxidize quickly and it gives an inert environment and heat dissipation ability from the filament. Due to argon pressure inside bulb is 400 Pa.

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9y ago

Early lightbulbs contained vacuum to prevent oxygen from burning up the filament. But as higher wattage bulbs were introduced to make brighter light, another problem occurred: the lightbulb could not properly dissipate the extra heat.

The problem was as follows: the only way heat could pass from the hot filament to the glass bulb was by radiation. While this was sufficient to move the heat in lower wattage bulbs it was inadequate in higher wattage bulbs, causing filaments to overheat and burnout early.

The problem was solved by filling the bulb with an inert gas (e.g. argon, krypton, nitrogen) to prevent oxygen from burning up the filament, but also the inert gas could pass heat from the hot filament to the glass bulb by convection. Convection can move far more heat much faster than radiation can, thus allowing the higher wattage bulbs to properly dissipate all the heat they generate.

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14y ago

Argon can be used in bulbs much like neon can; where neon gives off a reddish-orange light, argon is a bluish tint. If argon is used in an incandescent bulb it's probably to protect the filament from oxygen in the air. However, I'm not sure this is ever actually done; I know nitrogen is sometimes used for this purpose, but using argon seems to be overkill.

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12y ago

because the oxygen in air would burn causing the light bulb to burn out very quickly.

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13y ago

Incandescent light bulbs traditionally use argon as the interior gas. The gas is inert, so it does not interfere with the glowing filament.

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7y ago

Argon is often used when an inert atmosphere is needed. It is used in this way to protect the weld area and in incandescent light bulbs to stop oxygen from corroding the filament.

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Q: Why you use argon or nitrogen gas in light bulb?
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