What would be the best way...

[raging_hippo]

What would be the best way to go about measuring the temperature of a Lightbulb? I've been set a task to measure the temperature of a lightbulb as i increase the electrical power supplied to it and i was just wondering what would be the most practical way to do it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :biggrin:

[raging_hippo]

I've already tried doing it that way but its not really accurate enough. Any other ideas?

[Njorl]

Do you want the temperature of the filament, or the surface?

For the filament, do it spectroscopically. Take a spectrum and fit it to the blackbody eqation. If possible, make an estimate to correct for the material of the bulb.

For the bulb, use the smallest thermocouple you can find. Contact the thermocouple to the bulb with thermally conductive grease. Make several contacts of varying size to see if the size of the grease spot makes a difference. If it does, try to determine the effect and eliminate it mathematically.

Njorl