[mi corazon late]

I'm trying to understand photons and quantum.....I understand that electricity can mean different things for example it can mean the color that the light produces by the photons not been absorbed by the compound and thus giving us the color of the compound.... now electricity can also mean how the light bulb work....so there's a copper wire I think that is always burning w the help of the argon gas found inside n the bulb enclosure . now the light is actually the emission in increments of energy and in this case is argon gas? right? but whose photons are when it comes to the electrical wire that I imagine are keep in an excited state for the purpose of feeding it to the bulb enclosure w argon gas? n if I take it a step further whose photons are we using when it comes to powering an ordinary electrical outlet? please help me understand.

[tamim83]

Electricity is broadly, is any phenomena that involves a moving charged particle.  I suppose light falls under this category since it is an electromagnetic disturbance and can be emitted or absorbed by a moving or oscillating charge (like an electron moving between atomic energy levels).  

Most incandescent light bulbs contain a tungsten filament in a gas bulb that it either evacuated (turned into a partial vacuum) or is filled with an inert gas like argon.  The point of this is to keep the filament from oxidizing, which would reduce the lifetime of the bulb.  Passing a current/voltage through the filament heats it up.  As more heat is added, the electrons in the tungsten are able to be excited to higher atomic energy levels.  When the they "fall" back to their ground state they give off light, which is what we see.  Its white light since we are seeing a mixture of frequencies.  This type of radiation is called "blackbody radiation", one of the proofs of the particle nature of light (you may want to read up on this).  As more heat is added, you get more photons of light.  

Also, light can cause electrical current to flow.  This is called photoelectricity and is how solar cells and photovoltaics work.  In a household outlet its the application of a voltage to a wire made from a material with some resistance that allows current to flow.  When you plug something in, you are completing a circuit and the current can flow through the device, allowing it to work.  

I hope this helps you some.  

[Japo]

I don't know if I got you right, but do you think that electricity is made out of photons...? It's not like that.

Electromagnetic radiation such as light is made out of photons. Which means nothing else than it is emitted in discrete amounts, according to E=h·f --you can't emit half a photon, or three and a quarter, of a given frequency, but the total amount of energy will have to be a multiple of this (very tiny) E that depends on f(requency).

"Electricity", if you mean electric current, is _not_ made out of photons; but of any charged particle (photons are not charged). Such as the valence electrons inside a metal, or the ions inside an electrolyte solution, both of which are free to move impelled by electric fields.

Electromagnetic radiation is actually made out of pulsating electric and magnetic fields, but it does not involve charged particles. It can affect other particles though (charged or not), and photons have mechanical momentum depending on their energy/frequency.

[tamim83]

Electromagnetic radiation is actually made out of pulsating electric and magnetic fields, but it does not involve charged particles.

Electromagnetic radiation can be produced by a moving or oscillating charge. 

[Japo]

Yes, I meant the radiation itself is not made out of them. By the way it was Corazon who I thought was confused (although I don't know if I understood him right), I wasn't trying to refute you.

To correct me further:

It can affect other particles though (charged or not)

... And it (EM radiation) can in turn be affected, even created, by other particles.

[tamim83]

I wasn't trying to refute you.

I know you were not, no worries  .