Conclusion

The purpose of our experiment was to determine the behavior of a light bulb’s tungsten filament immediately after the near-vacuum environment around it was compromised. This was done through use of the rotating mirror technique to capture a sweep photograph of a BB shattering a bulb over space and time. We were successful in accomplishing this goal, finding that the filament grew brighter directly after the bulb was shattered due to combustion of the filament. Through this experiment we also learned the proper techniques and methods for setting up and running an electronic timing circuit with a rotating mirror. For future experiments, we would like to shoot different kinds of bulbs to observe differences caused by bulb construction and filament types. It may also be interesting to see what difference flash filters of varying colors would make for the bulb reflectivity.