The Stefan-Boltzmann Law Demonstrator Device

[sea_dreamer]

Hello Physics Forum! There's an interesting experiment to verify the Stefan-Boltzmann law using an incandescent lamp. Which treats the filament as an approximate blackbody, approximates that the input power fully goes to the radiating channel (i.e. no conduction or gas loss), measures the filament temperature (comparing the filament resistance to a reference resistance at some known temperature) at various power level, and finally plots the curve. A log-log plot of P and T yields the slope to be ≈4. That is all the experiment is. Like I did in my undergraduate course.

This is a really interesting experiment to me. I did some further "research" and came up with a device, which I named Stefan-Boltzmann Law Demonstrator Device (SB Demon in short!). It uses a PIC microcontroller. This also has an USB HID interface (with a host software) to connect the real world (of lamps and filaments) to the world of PC. The host software has some more data acquisition options and an option to export the data to a Wolfram Mathematica notebook file. And then one can perform various analyses (like plot, linear and non linear regression etc.) to the data in mathematica to analyse a filament lamp properties.

Technically, my device is nothing new, it is simply a special purpose data logger. It's just an addition to the traditional technique. It might help students (like me) to go beyond school/college labs. And for (traditional) physics teachers, it might inspire them to ask the students for innovative techniques as an addition to the general course works.

So, visit http://sbdemon.wordpress.com/" for more about it. Eagerly waiting for your comments/suggestion/remarks etc.

I know those incandescent lamps are quite obsolete now for illuminating (and it should be to save our garden, the Earth), but I think it's a really nice and simple (and "innocent" too) thing to venture into some interesting physical phenomena. Is not it?

 

[AndyW]

Thank you for sharing your interesting experiment and device with us. It's always exciting to see new and innovative ways to demonstrate and verify scientific laws and principles. Your SB Demon seems like a great addition to the traditional techniques for verifying the Stefan-Boltzmann law. I can see how it can be a useful tool for students to further explore and analyze the properties of filament lamps.

I also appreciate your consideration for the environmental impact of using incandescent lamps and your suggestion to use this experiment as a way to educate and promote more sustainable practices. As scientists, it's important for us to not only understand and study the natural world, but also to consider our impact on it and find ways to mitigate any negative effects.

I hope your device and experiment will inspire other students and teachers to think outside the box and come up with their own innovative techniques for studying physics. Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing your ideas with the community.