Re: light bulb explosion

From: John Popelish (jpopelish_at_rica.net)
Date: 10/13/04 

Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 23:45:44 -0400

PatrickM wrote:
>
> Sorry if it's the wrong newsgroup but I've came here before so I thought of
> asking here first...
> Today in our home kitchen a standard 100-watts light bulb "exploded". It
> happened just like that for no apparent reason, my girlfriend was in the
> kitchen reading and could have been injured by the flying glass from the
> bulb. The fuse didn't open. Has anyone ever seen or experienced something
> like that before? Why would that happen? Thank's for any info and sorry for
> my approximate english.
>
> Patrick, from Quebec, Canada.

Light bulbs ordinarily have a low internal pressure (much less than
atmospheric pressure) so do not actually explode, even if the filament
overheats for some reason (like a partial short circuit). But the
glass can shatter from internal stresses (not properly annealed) or
from being splashed with water.

My parentheses keys are tired now. :-p 

-- 
John Popelish