Filament temperature of low power incandescent lamps: Stefan-Boltzmann law

Imtiaz Ahmad, Sidra Khalid and Ehsan E. Khawaja

School of Science and Technology, University of Management and Technology,

An undergraduate experiment using commercially available low power incandescent lamps was performed. The results obtained, for higher temperature of the filament (say above 1000 K), were compared with those calculated using a simple model, based on transfer of electric power predominantly into Planck’s radiation channel through Stefan-Boltzmann law. The agreement between the results and the theory was quite satisfactory. Measurement of filament temperature to confirm theoretical results, included in the present work, is expected to give a student more confidence in the theory.