...Nothing in the LED burns to produce the light.
Like all solid state electronics, LEDs work because they contain magic smoke. If you let the smoke out, they stop working.
An incandescent light is anything that produces light by heat/burning. Your household light bulb has a thin metal filament which electricity flows through causing it to burn, but since it's in a vacuum, there's no flame or smoke, it just glows very brightly.
Any other type of light uses some other method. An LED uses a diode which moves electrons in and between atoms creating photon, or light, emission. Nothing in the LED burns to produce the light.
An incan shines because it's hot. A LED can be hot if it shines with enough high power, but doesn't need heat at all to shine.
I think that statement needs a little qualification. An incan filament is producing light because it is hot, not because it is burning. Not the same thing!an incan is technically producing its light because something is burning...
Thank you, fifty-one deutschmarks, this is something that has bugged me on this forum for a long time, but I can now sneak from behind your coat-tails and say this:I think that statement needs a little qualification. An incan filament is producing light because it is hot, not because it is burning. Not the same thing!
Burning implies the filament would be consumed in a chemical reaction with oxygen when sufficient heat is applied;