Tealight vs. Lightbulb Melt-Off!   

Ah! Sorry for the delay in presenting the results of this one.

It got very late, and I didn't have the energy to finish the story on Thursday night.

 

As many people guessed, condensation did drip around the lights a bit, occasionally sizzling on the lightbulb, but missing the candle flame.

Within about 30 minutes, both glasses had a margin of liquid around the ice, and the tea light ice seemed to have melted a little bit more.

The photos at the right were taken at the ONE HOUR mark.

After 105 minutes, the ice above the candle was completely melted.

Tealight wins!!

There were many questions about the suspension of the glasses. A zip-tie was under the armpits of the glass, with three fishing lines holding the glass from above. It took a really long time to get the glasses at an equal height above their heat sources.

 

Here is a photo of the lightbulb ice after 105 minutes. Just a little plug of ice remained, which would have melted in about 15 minutes.

The heat required to melt 300 grams of ice, (80 calories per gram) is 24,000 calories. An output of 24000 calories in 105 minutes is just under 16 watts, so I guess most of the bulb's energy really is converted to light, not heat.

The tealight candle was lit for almost two hours, burning 4 grams of wax.

The 100 Watt lightbulb used about 0.2 Kwh of electricity in two hours, which sells for about two cents in Sacramento.

 

I hope you aren't getting sick of these experiments. Thank you for reading them and for providing all those great answers!

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February 3rd, 2006

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