Hi. I am wondering how well the filament in an incandescent light globe follows the basic shape of the classic blackbody temperature/spectrum curves. The reason I ask is that I just set a small science project for a student to measure the voltage and current of a small torch globe (4.8V 0.75A Krypton type) at various voltage levels and observe the change in resistance as the filament temperature increases. The basic experiment went smoothly enough and gave the expected results. However I then asked the student to attempt to place an approximate temperature scale to the data by observing the color of the filament at the various operating voltage levels and to estimate the temperature from these observations. To do this part I gave the student a “color chart” that is good for anything that approximates the shape of the blackbody curve. Charts of this type are widely available and though the color judgement is somewhat subjective they should be able to provide a reasonable estimate of temperature. See http://www.processassociates.com/process/heat/metcolor.htm for example (or as reproduced in part below for those who dont like clicking on links) Color Approximate Temperature °C Faint Red : 500 Blood Red : 580 Dark Cherry : 635 Medium Cherry : 690 Cherry : 745 Bright Cherry :790 Salmon : 845 Dark Orange : 890 Orange : 940 Lemon :1000 Light Yellow :1080 White :1205 The thing that I’m now trying to figure out is why we couldn’t get any color “cooler” than orange from the light globe. Even making observations in the dark to help see the lower light levels we were still unable to perceive anything below orange. So I wondering if this is a result of 1. The filament for some reason not radiating in the same shape curve as a black body. 2. The light levels in the red region being too low to see for such a small object as a torch globe filament. 3. Perhaps (by design) the lamp is made to produce predominately yellow/white light. I don’t know how, perhaps something to do with the surrounding gas. Does anyone have any idea why I can’t adjust the voltage to get less “temperature” than orange? Thanks.