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The variation is certainly noticeable when one uses the Pasco "light
sensor" with a datalogging interface. We were using a halogen lamp on 12V
ac as the source in a polarisation experiment some time back. The
measurements drifted up and down in a regular way that turned out to be a
slow beat between the 100 Hz of the mains and the sampling frequency, not
quite 20 Hz. We learnt that we had to use well-smoothed DC. We also learnt,
btw, that halogen lamps die very quickly when run at below their rated voltage.
At 14:28 07/03/03 -0800, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
"There is some hysteresis caused by the time lag of the temperature
response to
the heating/cooling cycles, but the difference in resistance due to these
temperature excursions isn't a great fraction of the overall average
resistance
as a function of time."
A 71/2 W lamp works well as a strobe for setting the speed of a disk
turntable. Knowing this prompted me to check in my favo. reference book,
Levi's Applied Optics. Sure nuff, lotsa data.
It gives heating ( brightness 0=>90% and cooling 100=>10%) times and total
variation in brightness for various lamps powered by 50 and 60 Hz.
They also have extensive tables on W props from which one may determine the
temperature and resistance. More easily, one (bc hopes to do) may use a dual
beam (dual trace) o'scope directly. Or more hi-tech, digitize and plot the
product.
Here's some, 115V 60 Hz, extracted data:
gas filled first:
W M*% t(h) (msec) t(c) (M* % variation from mean,
total;
40 27 65 26
100 13 125 59
500 4.5 380 190
vacuum
6W 74! 39 12
40 14 128 58
Another, rather interesting, but conforms to intuition, is a graph of
brightness variation (M*) with wavelength for a 120 V lamp (wattage not given
-- is this like voltage?). The variation is 10% to 4%, 0.4 micron to 1.2
(respectively)
The large values of t(h) and t(c) paradoxically belie the large values of M*.
The paradox is resolved by examining the graphs of heating and cooling. The
curves are approximately exponential, so, for example, a 40 W (gas filled)
lamp's brightness (lumens) drops from 100% to less than 35% in only ten
milliseconds. the eye's is a log detector, so not so obvious. Despite W lamp
resistance is ~ linear WRT the applied voltage (quasi DC), I suspect its
variation should be quite noticeable.
bc